Another World
by McSquidster
Summary: The universe had gifted them with a second chance, giving them new lives to recover from the weight of their past and set out on a new adventure together. And just like Natsu had suggested, they were sure as hell going to make the most of it. The epilogue/mini sequel to Scarlet Heart. Modern AU. Nalu fluff overload.
1. Chapter 1: A Second Chance

**Hello again! Just when I thought I'd never get around to actually writing this thing, inspiration came...finally, the epilogue/sequel to Scarlet Heart is here!**

* * *

 _Lucy turned to softly smile up at Natsu, "If we had met in another world or another time…I was thinking about how great that would've been. If only that could happen…I wouldn't fear anything. Then, I could love you all I wanted."_

* * *

Natsu stumbled to a stop upon arriving at an intersection of hallways, his eyes catching a glimpse of familiar gold at the end of one of them.

His eyes widened, his breaths slowing the longer he stared.

It was _her._

* * *

A sudden chill raced down Lucy's spine when she felt eyes on her, and her eyes widened as she turned over her shoulder, her purse slipping from her hand and its contents spilling across the floor.

He was standing at the end of one of the hallways that branched off from the large waiting room she was in, his hand clutched tightly around an IV and his face slack, his eyes filled with a strange mixture of disbelief and hope.

Some small part of her conscience told her that he was probably just another doppelganger or reincarnation or whatever else one might call them. She, Laxus, and Gildarts had one, so was it that unlikely that he had one too?

But the look in his eyes…it told her that it was _him_. That it was _her_ Natsu.

His name slipped from her lips, at first in a whisper and then once more in a desperate cry, and she started running towards him through the crowded hallway without a moment of hesitation, tears streaking down her cheeks.

He started towards her too, though it was more of a hurried limp, his IV toppling over and yanking from his arm. But he didn't seem to notice in his desperation to get to her, his eyes never leaving hers and her name repeatedly slipping from his mouth.

They collided halfway, Lucy wrapping her arms around his neck and Natsu wrapping his around her waist. In his desperation to pull her closer, he lifted the blonde from the floor, both of them toppling over as his weakened legs refused to support their weight.

But neither cared as they crashed to their knees, still desperately clinging onto one another and burying their faces in the other's neck, soaking their skin with tears.

"Oh god, Natsu," the blonde breathily choked out between tears. "You're here. It's really you."

He pulled back from her tight grasp to get a better look at her, his hand finding her cheek and his thumb running across her skin to wipe away a falling tear. He hadn't seen her face in over thirty years, and just like always, she was absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful. Her blonde hair shimmered his favorite shade of gold, her eyes shining the dark brown he'd fallen in love with a thousand years ago. She wasn't as thin as she had been the last time he'd seen her, her frame sporting healthy curves which served as a testament that her body was no longer inflicted with the illness of the heart that had claimed her life.

The blonde's eyes widened a fraction as she did her own fond study of his face, her fingertips lightly tracing over the skin where, in his last life, his scar had resided. Her lips quirked lightly at the edges as she touched the smooth, unmarred tan skin beneath his left eye, her gaze constantly dashing between her fingers and his eyes.

"Natsu?"

The salmon haired man glanced over his shoulder at the light call of his name, freezing in place when he caught sight of Wendy standing at the end of the hallway, her eyes confusedly traveling between his toppled IV and the blonde he had in his grasp on the floor.

His focus was drawn back to Lucy as she let out a small breath when his sister started towards them. Her grip on his arms suddenly tightened, her gaze urgently boring into his as she hurriedly whispered under her breath to him, "Natsu, listen to me. You can't tell anyone anything about who you are. About who you _really_ are. You can't let them know that you're from the past."

Natsu's brows furrowed, "Lucy…what-"

"Trust me, Natsu. Just pretend like you don't remember anything." Her gentle grin returned, her thumb lovingly tracing over his jawline one last time, "I'll come find you later. I promise."

He kept his gaze trained on her as she stood and quickly wiped away her tears before heading back the way she came, because after thirty years of living without her, how could he not stare? Their relationship had ended so horribly, and he'd allowed her to slip away only to drown in the regret of that decision for the rest of his life. And even after he'd been so cruel to her, she'd still waited for him to come to her before her death, her stubborn love for him only making him yearn for her more.

After she'd died, he'd been slow to accept the fact that he'd never see her again.

But now, somehow, by some divine miracle, she was here in this time period, alive and healthy. He'd always been told that the heavens held him in high favor, but he'd never believed in that idea as strongly as he did in this moment. Maybe this new life was a chance to fix things, the chance he'd been hopelessly yearning for since he'd lost her. And he trusted that Lucy wanted to fix things, too. Her last letter to him before her death was proof of that fact.

She said that she'd come to find him again later, and so he'd wait for her like she had for him all those years ago. And when she came, he'd take his chance to finally apologize.

Wendy finally made it to him, gently helping him stand while her eyes remained fixed on where the blonde had disappeared to, "Natsu, who was that?"

He thought over his words carefully. Lucy would've been his wife if the laws of Ishgar hadn't prevented their marriage, and even if she'd never officially earned the title of his counterpart as king, he definitely still considered her his only queen.

If he was going to trust Lucy's words though, he couldn't tell his sister any of that, or anything about the happenings of the past and where he truly came from. So even though the blonde was his everything, he settled on a simpler term, a small smile on his face as he breathed out, "An old friend."

* * *

Natsu nervously twiddled his fingertips on his thighs as he sat in his hospital bed, waiting for the group of doctors outside the door to enter and begin their examination of him.

Wendy was seated at his bedside, her hands quietly clasped in her lap as she, too, anxiously waited for the examination to begin. The blunette had told him that she was there to fill in the gaps he left open, and he was grateful for her presence, the whole appearance and atmosphere of the hospital, plus the unsettling time travel situation he'd been entangled with, still putting him on edge even though it'd been a few hours since he'd first gained consciousness. Even if he had no memory of her being his sister, he still inexplicably felt comforted with her at his side.

The fact that Lucy was somehow in this time was another great source of relief, though he'd definitely be questioning her later about how the hell the two of them had ended up a thousand years in the future.

The two doctors finally brushed through the door, and Natsu was taken aback when he realized that they were both female. Doctors had always been male during the Ishgar Dynasty. Women had never even had the opportunity to access the knowledge that the occupation required.

Under Lucy's wishes, Natsu had strove for equality during his reign, not particularly between the genders but between all people, and if the two women before him were anything to go by, it appeared that such had been the goal for many years after his rule came to an end.

The older of the two women, her hair a light pink, grouchily came to stand at the end of his bed with the younger, more vibrant pink haired girl following in her wake, "I'm just going to ask you a few simple questions. Then from there, we're going to decide how to go about your treatment. Understand?"

He swallowed and nodded his head, preparing himself to follow Lucy's advice and act like he didn't remember anything. Though, he'd never been the best liar, so he was incredibly nervous. He'd always preferred more straightforward means of conducting business, namely intimidation and if it came down to it, threatening others with his sword. But his trusty blade wasn't at his side this time, and he was sure such conduct definitely wouldn't bring about anything good. So he'd do his best to deceive and hope that they fell for it.

The old woman cleared her throat, ready to take notes on a paper she'd somehow secured to a piece of thin wood, "Do you remember your name?"

At least that had stayed the same in the transition from past to present, as proven by his earlier conversation with Wendy, "Natsu Dragneel." Last names had never been commonly used during the Ishgar Dynasty, so it felt strange to identify himself as such rather than King or Prince. Titles were always the preferred method of address, and those that were close enough to forgo titles usually used only first names. But he had always like the ring of his full name, feeling particularly attached to the similarity of his last name and the word dragon, the zodiac of his birth year.

The doctor seemed to be somewhat in tune with his thoughts, her next question being, "What about your birthday?"

He almost answered that question truthfully, nearly letting it slip that he was born on the twenty-fourth day of the fourth lunar month in the year of the dragon. That date was so ingrained into who he was that it was hard for him to accept the fact that that date may no longer belong to him. Lucy had warned him about revealing who he was, so in case his birthday had changed during the transition from past to present, which it surely had because he certainly didn't physically feel like he was over a thousand years old, he hesitantly answered, "I…don't know."

"July seventh, nineteen ninety-three," Wendy quietly filled in for him, her eyes watching him in concern.

Natsu struggled to do the math in his head. In this time period, he'd been born in nineteen ninety-three, and the current year was twenty eighteen. So that meant he was…twenty-five?

"Do you have any memories of the crash?" The old woman pressed on with her examination.

He decided to answer her question truthfully, assuming that the crash she was referring to was the horrendous mess of twisted metal he'd woken up in the middle of earlier and determining that there could be no harm done in explaining the memories he'd made since his arrival in this time, "I remember waking up afterwards, but that's it."

When it became clear that he didn't remember much, the doctor addressed her next question more towards Wendy than him, "Does your family have a history of memory loss or any neurological diseases? Does your brother have a history of seizures, headaches, depression, or cancer?"

The blunette shook her head, her brows troubled and her bottom lip caught between her bottom teeth, obviously feeling upset at the implications of the doctor's questions.

"What about your brother's alcohol and drug use?"

Wendy shook her head again, more insistent this time as she replied, "Natsu's never taken any drugs other than for medical reasons, and he'd only ever drink casually on the weekend with friends. I don't think he's even been drunk before."

The old woman busied herself with scribbling notes onto her sheet of paper, mumbling over her shoulder to the other, younger woman every now and then. When she was done, she gave the patient before her one last glance over, "We'll have to conduct some neurological exams to check the physiological aspects of your brain and nervous system. You may have hit your head harder than we thought, Mr. Dragneel."

Without giving them a proper farewell, she strutted out of the room, Wendy hurriedly calling out a short, "Thank you!" before the door slammed shut behind the doctor and her assistant.

Silence filled the room in lieu of their exit, and not knowing what to do next, Natsu slowly turned his gaze to Wendy. He pressed his lips into a thin line when he saw the tears gathering in her eyes, her fingers clenching around the hem of knee-length skirt. He was supposedly her brother in this time period, and he definitely knew what it felt like to watch as a sibling endured a daunting trial. Of course he wasn't really her brother and his memories weren't really gone, but to her, it certainly had to appear like such was the case.

He really didn't know the first thing about her, but as he watched her try to conceal her face from his view as a single tear slipped free, he felt the unexplainable urge to comfort her nevertheless. So he awkwardly cleared his throat in the silence, swallowed heavily before he quietly began, "Um…everything will be okay, Wendy."

Her lips lifted in a small smile despite the tears in her eyes as she turned to him, "Of course it'll all be okay. Because you're _you_ and nothing ever slows you down."

Natsu's attempt at a smile faltered as her last statement made him fully realize the weight of that fact that he wasn't the person she thought he was.

It was quite obvious to him that he'd be spending quite a large amount of time with Wendy given her relation to him, or rather her relation to the body he'd somehow wound up in, and there was a very high possibility that he'd even be living with her. And he knew well the weight of losing a sibling. He'd endured the deaths of six of his brothers, and although three of them had stood against him in the fight for the throne, he'd still felt torn apart inside by losing them. That crushing pain was something he'd never wish upon anyone.

So for now, Natsu resolved to do his best to fill in that hole in her life, and maybe, someday he'd work up the courage to tell her the truth.

* * *

Natsu let out a content hum as he shoved another piece of chicken into his mouth, loving the burning feeling on his tongue.

Wendy had taken upon herself the task of ordering his favorite food for him from something called 'the cafeteria' before she left for the day, hoping it might somehow spark his memory. He'd felt like he might start crying at the spicy taste of the chicken that had been delivered to his room shortly after. The food in this time was absolutely amazing, and he'd decided that eating was definitely going to have to become a new pastime of his.

He was drawn out of his appreciation for his chicken when there was a light knock on the open door, and his sauce-covered lips pulled back in a bright grin when he saw his favorite blonde standing in the doorway of his room.

Lucy knew she didn't need an invitation to come closer, quickly taking a seat on the edge of his bed and facing him with a laugh upon her lips. She giggled as she retrieved his napkin from the tray that had been placed over his lap, lightly dabbing away at the sauce on his lips, "I see you still have the same sloppy eating habits. I guess not even becoming king could fix them."

Her giggles died out as she mentioned the past, and Natsu knew right then that she'd come to fulfill the very same goal he had, to finally figure things out and start over if they were ready.

Natsu reached forward and grabbed one of her hands between his, threading his fingers through hers as his gaze thoughtfully traced the lines of her knuckles, which were no longer hardened by the callouses she'd had whilst they were in Ishgar, "Where did things go wrong? When did we stop spending our time like this?" He finally lifted his gaze to hers, "I know you'll be completely honest with me, Lucy. I don't want you to suffer because of me anymore. So tell me everything."

She swallowed heavily, hesitating for a second as she thought over her words carefully, "I…I think it all started when I stopped liking you. I still loved you, but…I just…didn't like being around you anymore. I hated constantly feeling like something horrible was about to happen. And that's when I knew my mind was preparing my heart for that moment…the one where I'd say 'I'm done' and really mean it." She ran the tip of her thumb over the back of his hand, "The hardest thing I've ever done was walking away from that palace, still madly in love with you."

Natsu dropped his gaze to his lap again, regret lacing his voice, "I should have chased after you the day you left, but I thought you might hate me for thinking I still had the right to love you after all I'd put you through."

"I never hated you, Natsu," her tone was slightly harsh, obviously upset that he would even think she felt like that. But she knew with the way she'd left him, it would be hard for him to believe otherwise, so she hurried to explain herself, "I hated the way you spoke and the things you did." Her lip quirked in a soft, reminiscent smile, her tone a lot lighter than it had been moments before, "But then I remembered the boy who took me to see the stars and risked his life to stand beside me in the rain. I remembered the man who saved my life more than once and comforted me when everyone else who stood by our sides' lost their lives," she respectfully bowed her head for a moment, thinking of those who had wrongfully been killed during her years spent in the Ishgar dynasty. After her moment of reverent silence, she lifted her head to the salmon haired boy in front of her again, "So no, Natsu…I never hated you. I might have told you that I despised you once, but…I never truly hated you. I hated what you'd become."

He nodded his head softly in understanding, his eyes downcast and his brows furrowed as he thought over her words and how he would respond.

Lucy let him take his time, feeling no need to rush the situation given how long she'd been waiting for this moment, the moment when they finally had the chance to set everything right between them.

Natsu swallowed heavily, his voice slightly choked and somehow full of both regret and acceptance as he began, "I did the things I did not because of who I was, but because of who I had to be. I had to be the King of Ishgar, not just the Natsu I was before when I could spend every second of every day with you."

Lucy quietly listened to him as he spoke, her fingers still comfortingly threaded through his. He didn't sound as if he was trying to justify his actions, but he did seem to yearn for her understanding.

"I thought that if I did the things I did, the nation would finally be at peace, and no one else would have to suffer like my brothers and I had," his lips pressed into a thin line bitterly, his brows furrowed together in pain as he thought about the past. "I was trying to be everything to everyone, and somewhere along the way I lost myself completely. And in the process…I lost you, too. I didn't realize how much wrong I had done until you left the palace."

Lucy quietly watched on as a few tears began to stream down his cheeks.

Hearing his words gave her an entirely new perspective on those last days she'd spent in the palace. His duties as King, and the pride that came along with his status, had never allowed them the opportunity to speak so openly at such a great length about their feelings.

She'd always known that too many hands had shoved and beat him down when they should have been lifting him up. It was terribly cruel that he had been forced to learn about love from those who had never loved him. His deceitful mother, his so-called 'adoptive family,' and even a few of his brothers had always treated him with disdain. That had made him trust in others a little less and selfishly cling to love when it was given to him to prevent it from leaving again. And with his need to cling to love, he'd turned into a monster in her eyes.

But now, as she looked at him long and hard, all she saw was a man broken by years of tragedy and pain, forced to do the unspeakable. She didn't see the demon that everyone else used to say he was, the monster that even she had grown to see him as. Now that the throne was long gone and his country had fallen only to give rise to a new one, she saw him as all he ever wanted to be seen as. He was just Natsu, and that was all she needed him to be.

He sniffled, trying to get his emotions back under control, "Lucy, why are both here now? _How_ are we both here?"

She lightly shrugged her shoulders, wishing she had an answer for him, "I really don't know how you're here, Natsu. But as for me…this is the time period I was born in."

His eyes widened a fraction in disbelief, "What?"

She bit her bottom lip and lightly hummed as she nodded in affirmation, "Yep. I was born on July first, nineteen ninety-four."

His expression remained frozen in surprise, and so she continued to explain, "About two years ago, I drowned during a solar eclipse."

"What?!"

She lightly chuckled at the way his face paled at that piece of information, "God, you don't have freak out like that. I'm still here, breathing right in front you, aren't I?" She sighed and went back to explaining, "Anyways...I was certain I was going to die, but then I woke up in the middle of the royal hot springs of the palace, my consciousness in the body of a girl who looked exactly like me."

Fear laced his voice as he quietly asked, "Then...do you remember how we met? Or...or was that the other girl?"

The blonde smiled reassuringly, letting out a small laugh at the memory, "That was me. You saved me from falling off a cliff. And then you threw me off of your horse, like, five seconds later."

The tension in his expression faded now that she had set his concern at ease, and he went back to quietly listening to her speak.

Her tone shifted, suddenly a lot heavier than it had been before, "And then when I died because of my ailing heart…I woke up back here, with no memory of all that had happened while I was in Ishgar. It'd been a year since I'd nearly drowned, and I'd been in a coma that entire time. It's been about a year since I woke up."

Natsu's eyes searched hers, "Then…how do you remember me now?"

Her lips quirked in a small smile, "I had dreams about you nearly every night. And then yesterday…I saw a few paintings of you and it all just clicked back into place. I remembered everything." She turned to face him, "And now you're here."

She bit her lip as she gave him a moment to think over all that she'd just told him in silence, her own mind still reeling over the fact that he was really here. She let out a breathy, somewhat bitter chuckle, "I'm still trying to understand why the universe would bring two people together only to tear them apart. It's cruel." She'd spent a grim portion of her time in Ishgar witnessing every single relationship between her friends come to an early, horrible end. Sting and Yukino, Gray and Juvia, Erza and Jellal, Gajeel and Levy. And despite how much they'd fought to stay together, even she and Natsu had been torn apart in the end. But now they were here, together again. She turned to give him a small smile, "But for whatever reason, the universe decided to give us a second chance."

"Well then…let's make the most of it." He swung his legs to the side of the bed that was open and slid off the mattress, restraining a small wince as his bruised body complained at the movement. He quickly circled around the bottom of the bed and came to stand in front of her with a bright smile on his face, his hand extended out towards her, "Shall we?"

Lucy returned his goofy grin when the familiar action caused a memory to resurface in her mind, one from her birthday over a thousand years ago.

 _Natsu let out a sigh and held his hand out to her, "Let's go."_

 _"What?"_

 _"It's my present for you. I'll take you somewhere nice," he grinned softly at her. "So let's go."_

With a small laugh, Lucy slid her hand into his, just like she had back then.

The universe had gifted them with a second chance, giving them new lives to recover from their past and set out on a new adventure together.

And just like Natsu had suggested, they were sure as hell going to make the most of it.

* * *

 **AN**

 **I'm baaaaaacckkkk~ Yaaay!**

 **I really thought I'd never get around to writing this, but like two days ago, I just suddenly got the urge to abandon the other fics I'm getting ready to publish and work on this instead. So here it is six months late...finally!**

 **I'll be adding onto this randomly whenever inspiration comes and I have the time to write. I am currently working on two other fics that kind of have priority over this one, but I'll try and work more on this in the future.**

 **Some notes:**

 **In terms of tone, this will obviously be wildly different from Scarlet Heart. It'll have some semblance of a plot instead of just being a bunch of oneshots like I was originally planning and there will be a few bits of angst since I'm trying to wrap up some of the happenings in Scarlet Heart, but there will be an overwhelming amount of fluff, too, since these guys deserve it after all I put them through.**

 **Since the plot of this fic is so open, I wanted to let you guys know that I am open to receiving suggestions for what you'd like to see. I think it'd be cool if we kind of collab on this as an author and her readers in terms of ideas for the events of this story. Whether you have a suggestion for something Lucy could take Natsu to do to give him the full experience of the modern world, or if you want to see other characters from Scarlet Heart make an appearance, please just pm me or leave your suggestion in the reviews! I can't promise I'll include all of them, but I'd like to be able to hear what you guys would like to see!**

 **Before you leave your suggestions, I do have a few things about the plot of this fic that I've already decided on as an author, so make your suggestions with these things in mind: Unlike with Lucy in Scarlet Heart, a few people in this fic will eventually be finding out that Natsu is from the past. Also, the only people to have been brought to the future from the past will be Natsu, Lucy, and Gildarts, though I'm not entirely certain if Gildarts will show up again at this point. He probably will, but I just don't have specific plans for him yet. So, that means that even though people like Gray and Laxus will be showing up in this fic, they won't have memories of the past because they're entirely different people in this time period. Additionally, I already have plans for Natsu finding out about his daughter :)**

 **As always, thank you for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2: Home

Just like Natsu had expected, the doctors found absolutely nothing wrong with him, something which perplexed the medical experts to no end. He had no brain injuries, and no tumors. There was absolutely nothing other than what was supposed to be there. He was in perfect physical condition other than the bruises and scratches he'd received during the crash.

During their neurological examination of him, he'd received an MRI, though he still couldn't remember what that stood for even though Wendy and the doctors had told him countless times. All he knew was that laying inside of that metal contraption had been the worst forty minutes of his life. Not only did he have to stay completely still for the entire thing, but the noises that thing made were louder than the clamors of war. Despite the doctor's warnings, it's nearly scared the shit out of him when the banging sounds had first began.

After they'd monitored him for a few more days, and when they still couldn't find anything wrong, they'd attributed his memory loss to shock and sent him home with warning that if anything felt off, he should return to the hospital immediately. They'd told him and Wendy that his memories would likely return within a few weeks, but Natsu knew that wasn't going to happen. It only meant that he would have to try even harder to adapt to his new life quickly so that he wouldn't be found out, so he listened dutifully to any details Wendy shared about who the Natsu of this time had been.

Upon learning that he was ready to leave the hospital and go home, he'd been eager to finally get a view of the modern world, to see how the architecture and culture of the world had evolved. But his plans had quickly been tossed aside as soon as Wendy had driven out of the parking lot with him in the passenger seat of her car, which he now knew to be some strange sort of mechanical vehicle. Traveling that fast was just staggeringly unnatural, and he felt like vomiting at the sight of the world blurring by beyond the car's windows.

And Wendy had done nothing other than let out a small giggle when she took notice of his suffering, making a rather snide remark about how at least his motion sickness was still the same. She did speed up a small fraction to get them home faster, which he simultaneously appreciated and resented.

He nearly kissed the ground when she brought the car to final stop, his body flopping out of the door the moment his sister unlocked it. He was on his feet by the time she walked around the car though, eager to get a look at what would be his home in this life.

Compared to the lavish architecture of the palace, the light gray house before him was rather simple and modest, but not any less appealing to him. It was two stories tall, with a charcoal gray roof and white wood paneling around the windows and doors. A small white porch ran in front of the main entrance, embellished with a few hanging wind chimes and wooden benches holding decorative pillows.

Natsu sucked in a small breath, his eyes becoming glassy without his volition.

Now this…this was a place where a family could live in happiness together. It wasn't excessively large like the palace had been, and it wasn't barricaded by large stone walls lined with guards and steel gates. It was inviting, and although the exterior was gray, he immediately felt warmed and comforted as he gazed at it.

He sucked in a small, hopeful breath, "This…is home?"

Wendy began walking up the path towards the door, a warm smile on her face as she remarked, "Well, you have an apartment on the east side of town, but this is where you grew up. I figured it'd be best for you to stay here with me for the next little bit."

He started forward and followed her up the stairs, excitedly waiting to catch a glimpse of the inside of his new home as she unlocked the door.

Half of the entryway was occupied by stairs that ascended to the second level while the other half formed a hallway that led further back into the house, the walls lined with decorations of various sizes and colors. The entrance to a small dining room rested immediately on his right before the start of the stairway, while the left side of the space opened up into what looked to be a sitting room with a strange, thin, black box resting atop a wooden cabinet. He didn't have much time to investigate the rest of the first level of the house, not wanting to be left behind as Wendy quickly started up the staircase before him.

"Mom and dad still haven't mustered up the courage to change your room," his sister started with a small laugh in her voice, "so you should be able to make do with the stuff you left behind. But if you need anything, we can run by your apartment later."

The mention of parents had him faltering, but before he could think much on it, his focus was drawn to images secured to the wall of the stairway, his eyes widening at how life-like the pictures were. Whoever had painted them held talent beyond anything he'd ever witnessed before. It was incredibly eerie to see his own face captured in such detail, and during moments he had no recollection of no less.

He came to a halt when he recognized two of the smiling faces beside his own and Wendy's, his names for them escaping him in a low breath, "Father? Mother?" Although there were a few minor details about their appearances that contradicted what he remembered them looking like, their faces were unmistakable.

"You remember them?" Wendy asked excitedly, descending a few steps to be closer to him.

Her question affirmed his suspicions, and some small part of him was relieved to know that Igneel and Grandeeny were still his parents in this time period. No matter what wrongs they had committed in the past, he knew it would've been hard to accept anyone else as his parents.

"Of course," he whispered, his eyes trained on a photograph of himself wearing a strange black gown, an even weirder square topped hat with an orange tassel fighting against his wild hair to stay upon his head. His parents were at his flanks, his father with an arm swung over his shoulder and a proud smile on his face while his mother stood with an arm linked through his own on the other side, her eyes brimming with pride. To have his mother's eyes filled with pride as she stood beside him was something he had always yearned for, and to see the image he'd craved for displayed before him stole the breath from his lungs.

He whipped his head to Wendy, anxiously questioning, "Where are they?"

"Dad had to go out of the country for a business trip, and mom went with him. They were supposed to stay until the end of next week, but they're trying to find a flight back sooner. I've been talking with them every day since the crash, but they don't have cell service, so we can only talk when they have Wi-Fi. The hospital's visiting hours made it hard to find a time when you could talk to them." She gave him a warm smile, "But now that you're home, we can video chat with them later tonight, if you'd like."

He had no idea what a 'video chat' was, and for a moment he struggled to understand how his parents could be contacted when they were in an entirely different country. But regardless of the details, if it meant he got to communicate with his parents, then he'd accept her offer in a heartbeat, "Yes, please."

She was a bit taken aback by the overwhelming eagerness in his voice, but a warm smile quickly replaced her surprise, "Sounds good. They've been pestering me about it, too, so I'm sure they'll be glad to finally see that you're okay for themselves."

He followed after her as she started back up the stairs, his eyes briefly skimming over the rest of the pictures on the wall. He was sure that he saw a few more familiar faces resting amongst the display, but again, not wanting to be left alone in a place he had no recollection of, no matter how homey it was, he moved on before he could get a good look to be certain.

The hallway of the upstairs was decorated similarly to the one branching off from the entryway on the floor below, and Wendy gestured to the various doors as they passed them on their way to the end of the hall, "That's mom and dad's room, and this is mine. There's the bathroom and then that's our towel closet."

Natsu nodded his head as he took note of each bit of information, fully intent on exploring each of the rooms in the house later to further see how the world had evolved and to become better acquainted his new home.

His sister faced him with a soft smile upon her lips as she turned the knob on the door at the very end of the hallway and pushed it open, "And this is your room."

She let him enter the space before she followed, the blunette staying more towards the door to let him explore the space without her getting in the way.

Natsu had to admit, the room definitely suited his interests more than the palace had. It wasn't overly large and fancy, though there was still enough space for him to move around and feel comfortable.

There was a strange sense of belonging within him as he gazed around at the room's rather modest and plain contents. A simple desk sat in one corner, its shelves collecting dust now that the books and other knickknacks that had once occupied them were gone. The left wall of the room housed the door to a small closet, and a dresser with more empty space atop its wooden surface was situated next to the bed. A window and a few shelves took up the space on the walls, though like the dresser and the desk, the shelves were void of any contents.

What really caught his interest was the bed. A golden dragon with silver accents swirled up the maroon comforter that was spread across the mattress, a sight that caused a dull ache to echo in his heart for the design's similarity to the Dragneel family crest that had been embellished on many of the palace's features during both his father's reign and his own. The visible coziness of the bed gave him the sudden urge to jump on it and let it hold him hostage for the next few hours, his body slightly sore from the hard hospital bed he'd been forced to sleep on for the last few nights.

His sister giggled as she saw him staring at the bed, "You took your sheets and comforter with you when you moved to your apartment, so mom put your old ones back on. I don't think they've been used since you were twelve."

A soft ding suddenly echoed up from the entryway, and Wendy jumped from where she had settled to lean against his door, "Oh, I'll go get that. You can just stay here, I guess." She gave him one last warm grin before she disappeared down the hallway, the quiet sounds of her soft footfalls descending the stairs reaching his ears as he collapsed onto the bed face first.

He let out a content hum as he settled onto the mattress, ignoring the sounds of Wendy exchanging a few words with someone who had a fairly deep voice on the lower level. This bed was absolutely amazing, and just like eating, sleeping was definitely going to have to become a new pastime of his.

He had the urge to rid himself of his clothes, too, his body still much rather preferring the comfortable hanboks of the Ishgar Dynasty as opposed to the tight, form-fitting clothing of the modern world. He hated how the fabric, particularly his pants, which Wendy had called 'jeans,' squeezed his body in places he didn't want it to be squeezed, namely his crotch. The shirt was bit less bothersome, but it still felt strange to go out in public with so much of his arms showing, the sleeves only falling to the midpoint of his biceps. Such would have been deemed highly inappropriate in his time.

"Natsu! Someone's here to see you!" his sister happily called from the entryway.

The salmon haired boy pouted, not entirely keen on leaving his comfy spot and having to act like he didn't remember anything again. It was getting bothersome to have to constantly pretend to be someone else, even if who he was pretending to be shared quite a few startling similarities with him.

Despite his reluctance to leave, he pushed himself off of the bed, his feet dragging in the hallway as he made his way back to the stairs.

All of his grumpiness faded in an instant when he peered over the banister, his breath catching in his lungs and his eyes widening as he watched a familiar raven haired boy pass a fuzzy blue lump into his sister's arms.

Wendy had told him that Gray had been the one driving the car during the accident, but he'd dismissed the mention of the name, assuming it was someone who simply shared it with his deceased brother. Having Lucy in this time was already enough of a miracle, and there was no way his little brother had somehow wound up here, too.

But the mop of raven hair was unmistakable.

He unintentionally tuned out Gray's words of greeting as he rushed down the stairs as fast as he could without falling over, nearly losing his footing several times as he bumbled towards his brother.

The raven haired boy held up the bags in his right hand as he started, "I stopped by your apartment for you. I brought your cat and some clothes and toiletries, so you don't have to worry about-"

He cut himself off as Natsu tackled him in a hug, his arms winding around his chest and pulling him close. The salmon haired boy felt Gray stiffen in his hold, but he only tightened his grasp, tears already streaming down his cheeks. He could see Wendy over his brother's shoulder, surprise and slight concern written across her features.

"Um…you okay, dude?" Gray tentatively asked, his entire body still rigid.

"I'm so sorry, Gray," Natsu choked out, horrid memories of the raven haired boy's death appearing vividly in his mind once more. Even if his brother had asked for death in the end, the salmon haired prince was eternally haunted by what he'd done that day. The fact that he'd granted his brother's wish and allowed Gray and Juvia to be together in death aside, there wasn't a single thing about that day that he didn't regret.

The raven haired boy's brows furrowed in confusion, "Uh…for what, exactly?"

' _For getting annoyed by you when you were just being yourself. For not being a good older brother. For not protecting you and your wife. For…for killing you,'_ All of those thoughts threatened to poor out of Natsu's mouth before he could stop them, but at the very last second, he remembered Lucy's words.

He'd promised not to speak a word to anyone about who he really was.

Both the salmon haired boy and the blonde had doppelgangers or reincarnations or whatever else one might call them, and the souls who'd owned the bodies before Natsu and Lucy had woken up in them had been entirely different people.

Although he'd only been in his presence for a few moments, he could already tell that this Gray wasn't his brother. This Gray didn't seem to be as playful as his brother had been, for if he was, he wouldn't be able to stand in the same place for as long as he had been. And it was an immediate give away when the raven haired boy didn't adopt his usual expression of terror upon Natsu's appearance, this Gray seeming to be a lot more rugged and entirely unafraid of him.

But the fact that the Gray standing before him wasn't his brother didn't stop him from expressing his thoughts, some part of him figuring that the Gray he was hugging was at least some version of his brother and therefore he'd take his chance to apologize while he had it.

"For…for everything," Natsu pulled back from their one-sided hug and quickly wiped away the tears on his cheeks before he looked back up to the raven haired boy's face, and his conclusion on this Gray's identity was confirmed as he caught sight of his bewildered expression. The raven haired boy's eyes were squinted slightly in confusion as if he thought getting a good look at Natsu would explain what had brought on his sudden apology, his brows crinkled in thought.

As Natsu looked up at Gray's expression, he took notice of a fact that he hadn't paid any mind to before, something that sent a twinge of irritation through him.

Gray was taller than him in this time period.

Only by a few inches, but even that small difference was intolerable.

"You're taller than me," the salmon haired boy remarked flatly.

"Uh, yeah," the raven haired boy snapped out of his confusion, dropping his gaze to the floor and awkwardly scratching the back of his head with his free hand, "Have been since middle school."

"So…you remember Gray?" Wendy confusedly chimed in from her place by the door, both boys having almost forgotten about her presence.

Natsu didn't miss the way the raven haired boy's eyes lit up a bit at the idea of being remembered, but he didn't comment on it. Instead, the salmon haired boy timidly lowered his gaze, hesitantly trying to cover his slip up, "A…a little, I guess." He wiped at his eyes one last time, making sure all traces of his earlier tears were gone, "I…don't really know what came over me."

"Well don't do it again," Gray lightly smirked, setting the bags in his right hand atop a nearby table. "You freaked me out, ashface. Crying just isn't like you at all."

Natsu had assumed that such was the case from Gray's and Wendy's reaction to his tears, and he had no problem with adding that to his list of things he needed to avoid in order to fit in to his new life as quickly as possible. He'd never been one to cry often anyways, and he hoped that with this new life, there would be no reason for him to shed tears.

Gray cleared his throat, his voice somewhat tentative as he asked, "So…you really don't remember anything?"

"Bits and pieces," the salmon haired boy lied, figuring that his answer would be enough of an excuse as to why he knew Gray's name.

"Do you remember Happy?" Wendy asked hopefully, setting the blue, flluffy bundle in her arms on the floor.

Only when four small paws touched the ground did Natsu realize that the blue fuzz ball his sister had been carrying was a cat, the feline's black eyes curiously looking up at him through his whiskers. The cat seemed hesitant to approach him, simply staring up at him and standing in place, his tail slowly swishing from side to side.

"That's weird," Gray remarked. "Normally he'd be all over you by now."

So this was the other Natsu's cat? And Wendy had said his name was Happy, right?

The salmon haired boy wondered if the cat knew something was off with its master, and if that's why Happy was keeping his distance, something which obviously qualified as unusual behavior if Gray's words were anything to go by. He'd always known that animals seemed to have the innate ability to sense things humans couldn't, like changes in the environment and even changes in humans, whether it be illnesses or pregnancy.

Without thinking much on it, Natsu crouched down in front of the feline, extending his hand out in an invitation.

The cat's feet stayed in place, but he lengthened his neck outwards to sniff his fingers.

"Hey buddy," the salmon haired boy encouraged warmly, a grin spreading across his lips without his volition as Happy gently nuzzled his head into his hand. Natsu took the action as an invitation to scratch behind his ears for a moment, the cut purring in content and taking a few steps closer. When he was close enough, Natsu gently lifted Happy from the floor, some part of him desperately wanting to hold the feline.

As he cradled the purring cat in his arms, holding him with arm and scratching atop his head with the other hand, Natsu concluded that in this strange, foreign time, with only one person whom he could trust completely, maybe a little furry companion was just what he needed.

* * *

Lucy huffed out a deep breath as she anxiously stared up at the ceiling of her apartment, her feet hanging off the edge of her bed and her fingertips nervously twiddling on the back of her phone as it rested screen-down on her stomach.

She'd told herself to be patient countless times, to wait for a time when Natsu could tell her of all that had happened in Ishgar after her death instead of searching for the information herself. She'd written her number on a sticky note for him before she'd left the hospital earlier that day, and assuming he could figure out how to use a phone upon returning to his house, he'd be calling her later tonight. He could obviously provide her with much more detail than any other source considering he was her subject of interest, and she already knew a small portion of the reforms he'd made from the plaque she'd skimmed over in the exhibit on the day she'd regained her memories.

But those bits of information weren't enough to tide her over until she could talk to him again, and there was, of course, the large possibility of him being unable to figure out how a phone worked. A part of her was desperately screaming for her to just do one little Google search of his name to see what came up.

She saw no harm in doing that, and she reason that since he'd lived a thousand years ago, she'd only be able to find the most basic of information on him, right? There would still be plenty of things left for Natsu to tell her, and she highly doubted he'd be eager to reveal the information she wanted to know considering it had to do with whether or not he'd married many wives and had many children like his father had.

So, she gave in with a quick huff of breath, turning on her side bringing her phone towards her face before sliding her thumb across the screen to unlock it.

The blonde assumed it'd be easier to find information on him if she used the name he'd taken upon himself after his coronation rather than his birth name, her fingers hurriedly dancing across her screen to type ' _Gwangjong'_ into the search bar. She had to restrain a giggle when she saw that he had his own Wikipedia page, the idea somehow strange to her and something she'd never considered.

Before she clicked on the link, she prepared herself for the onslaught of information she was about to read, her brain running over all of the possibilities of what had occurred in Natsu's life after she'd died. During her time in Ishgar, she'd never warmed up to the idea of a man having multiple wives, but if Natsu had followed in the footsteps of the kings before him, then polygyny was definitely something she'd have to be prepared for.

As she skimmed over the information she already knew, like his birthday and the date of his coronation, she was surprised by the accuracy of records given that they'd been written over a thousand years ago.

His date of death was something she'd expected to find, but the thought of Natsu dying still spooked her as she skimmed over the information. She reminded herself that he was here in this time with her now, and with that reassurance, she curiously read on. He'd died in his sixties of a serious disease, his reign ending with his death in the year nine hundred seventy-five.

Beneath the list regarding Natsu's personal information lay a quote from a popular thinker of the time, who'd traveled from foreign lands to observe and write remarks on Natsu's rule.

' _He didn't hold his royal relatives and great nobles too close, always curbing the mighty and powerful.'_

Lucy couldn't really blame him for that, considering the mistreatment he'd endured at the hands of his family in the past. When she'd died, he hadn't been particularly close with any of his remaining brothers. She'd watched as even his relationship with Jellal deteriorated, the blue haired prince still bitter over Erza's death and caught up in believing that Natsu could have prevented it.

She couldn't help but wonder if they'd ever made amends, and the other princes whom were still alive when she'd died, Loke, Sting, and Gajeel, inevitably crossed her mind as well. The quote made it seem like a resolution to their conflict had never occurred, but she still had hope that Natsu had eventually moved on and forgiven his brothers for whatever wrongs he'd believed they'd done.

And God, she hadn't thought about Loke until just then. He'd surely cried a river when she'd passed, and she was overcome with an entirely new wave of guilt as she thought about how hard it must've been for him to lose the last person he'd had as a companion. He'd endured every loss she had, and he'd possibly felt grief to an even greater degree than her given that most of those who had passed were his brothers.

She momentarily forced the orange haired prince from her mind, hoping that if she read on, she might catch a piece of information that would give her at least somewhat of an idea as to what had become of her friend.

' _Gwangjong never neglected the humble, and accorded favors to widows and orphans. During his reign, the government was clean and fair, and he didn't reward or punish excessively.'_

The blonde smiled softly at that. It seemed that her salmon haired prince had made quite the compassionate king to the people after all, despite her worries at the beginning of his reign.

She skimmed over the section about Natsu's accomplishments, deciding to let him tell her of his successes himself, much rather preferring to hear of his triumphs from his own mouth instead of from an outside perspective.

After his accomplishments came a section speaking of the end of his reign, and she skipped over that as well as soon she saw that the first sentence forewarned of his fall from favor with the people. She didn't think she was quite ready to read such information after she'd just got him back, not wanting to learn about the things Natsu had done to lose the people's support again after he'd worked so hard to gain it even before he'd taken his seat on the throne.

At the bottom of the page was the information she truly cared about, and with her jaw set firm, she scrolled down, her eyes anxiously scanning every word that resided beneath the subtitle 'Family.' She let out a small sigh of relief when she saw that the section was rather short, only the length of her screen instead of the long list of names she'd been expecting.

To unify Ishgar, Bosco, and Seven, Igneel had forged alliances with powerful and influential families through marriage. Unlike his father, it seemed Natsu had sought to consolidate the power of the king by never marrying a daughter of a royal clan, marrying only once instead of thirty times like his father.

Minerva was the first name on the small list of his relatives, and Lucy's lips twisted in disgust as she read over the name. The dark haired princess was one piece of the past that she definitely didn't need to be reminded of. She and her brother were the ones who had ruined her and Natsu's hopes for the future, and although Lucy had eventually brought herself to give Sting her forgiveness, she'd never made amends with the dark haired princess, nor had she ever had even the slightest smidgeon of a desire to do so.

Her heart clenched painfully when she saw the names listed beneath Minerva's, her veins flooding with anger at the thought of Natsu having sex with the dark haired princess. But she forced herself to remember that the people of Ishgar didn't share her beliefs that marriage and sex were something sacred and to be partaken of only with those whom one loved. Back those days, the two acts had been entirely political, and she was positive that passion hadn't played a part in their consummation.

They'd had three daughters and two sons, the youngest of which passed shortly after childbirth. With only one son still alive at the time of Natsu's death, the choice of whom would inherit the throne had been blatantly obvious, and his successor was saved the pain of having to fight against his siblings to be king like his father and uncles had.

As she read over his daughters' names and who they'd been married off to for political gain, she solemnly thought, ' _It seems like Loke followed through with his promise.'_

The information regarding his daughters was wrong, at least in the sense that there was one name missing.

Nashi.

Her daughter hadn't been at the forefront of Lucy's thoughts since she'd regained her memories, but her baby had constantly been lingering in the back of her mind. The thought of her was something the blonde had subconsciously decided to leave unacknowledged until she'd had the time to come to terms with everything else that had happened, and then Natsu had suddenly shown up in the present and further scrambled her thoughts.

And now that he was here and they'd resolved to try and be together again, she knew she'd have to tell him about their child at some point. At first, he'd be angry with her for keeping Nashi a secret, she was sure. But they'd both agreed that they were ready to leave what had happened in the past behind, and she hoped he'd understand her reasoning for hiding Nashi from him.

* * *

Natsu nervously bounced his knees, sitting on the couch in his new home's living room while Wendy went to retrieve what she'd called a 'laptop' from her room.

They'd just finished dinner, and his mouth was still tingling from the spicy noodles she'd made for him. But now the rest of his body was beginning to tingle, too, not from spiciness but from excitement.

He was going to talk to his parents. After all these years, he was finally going to see them again. He tried not to get his hopes up, telling himself that just like Gray, they wouldn't remember the past and they'd be entirely different people.

But there was a small part of him that suggested otherwise, thoughts running wild in his head and spreading the idea that maybe they'd be his _real_ parents, with their memories intact.

In all honesty, he didn't know which situation he preferred. His parents hadn't really been the best parents after all, but nothing could change the fact that they'd been the ones to give him life and he was innately unable to refuse his care for them because of that fact.

Wendy came back into the room and plopped onto the couch beside him, resting the device she'd brought with her on her lap and opening it like a book, "Lean closer, Natsu. We probably won't be able to talk for too long because of their connection, but I'm sure they'll take advantage of second they can get."

The salmon haired boy watched on in awe as her fingers glided across the small, black squares with strange markings on them on the bottom half of the 'laptop,' the display on the screen changing too quickly for him to keep up.

His eyes widened as the screen lit up with an image of his parents, but instead of remaining still like he expected, they appeared like paintings that moved. The quality of the image wasn't the best, their faces broken up into small squares and their voices sometimes cut off at random intervals. They appeared much younger than when he'd seen them last, but even with the distortions of the screen and the differences in their features, Natsu could easily recognize them, his heartbeat quickening at the sight of their painfully familiar faces framed by red and purplish-blue hair, the same shade as Wendy's, that greeted him.

"Natsu!"

He couldn't stop the tears that gathered in his eyes at the cry of his name. It'd been over thirty years since he'd heard his mother's voice, and to hear it laced with such concern was something he hadn't prepared himself for.

Grandeeny looked to be on the verge of tears, "Oh, honey, we were so worried about you!"

"You're not still in pain, are you?" Igneel's firm voice carried through the speakers.

"I…I'm fine," Natsu quietly admitted, trying to keep his emotions out of his voice. He already knew that they weren't his parents, at least not his _real_ parents. But that fact couldn't stop him from feeling like crying because the people before him were so _achingly_ similar to the Igneel and Grandeeny he'd known that he found himself giving in to the idea of pretending that they were his real father and mother. They were showing so much concern and genuine care for him that he knew it'd be easy to accept them as his parents.

"Wendy's already told us about your memories…" Grandeeny informed him, a few of her tears slipping free as she thought of her son's apparent amnesia, but she pressed past her own feelings to give him a promise, "I just want you to know that we're always here for you, no matter what. We'll help your through this."

Natsu swallowed heavily in an attempt to ease the tightness in his throat. He'd been waiting for years to hear her speak those words.

"We'll be home in two days. Until then, take it easy, okay?" Igneel commanded lightly, a warm, fatherly grin on his face.

"'Kay," the salmon haired boy breathed out, still feeling incredibly overwhelmed by their care.

"I'm sorry we can't talk for very long," his father reluctantly continued. "Our connection isn't very stable here."

Grandeeny sought for reassurance from her daughter, "You'll do your best to look after him in the meantime, right, Wendy?"

"Of course, mom," the blunette smiled warmly.

The image on the screen of her laptop distorted even further, and his parents' voices began cutting off more often than before.

Igneel sighed in disappointment, "I think we may have to end the call soon."

"We love you guys," his mother reluctantly began her farewells, "And we'll be home real soon."

Despite the fact that Natsu still felt like crying, a bright smile spread across his face as he took in his parents' affectionate gazes, "I…I love you guys, too."

"Goodbye, sweetie," Grandeeny smiled warmly, "Take care of yourself."

"Love you guys. Travel safe!" Wendy was the last to give her farewells before the call cut off entirely, the screen turning black with a small white box in the middle notifying of the lost connection.

Even as his sister closed her laptop and set it on the short table in front of the couch, Natsu still stared blankly into the space the image of his mother and father had formerly occupied, unintentionally tuning out the blunette's soft chattering and thinking of what a blessing it was to have Igneel and Grandeeny as his parents again. The universe truly had gifted him with a second chance, and not just with Lucy, but with his parents as well.

He didn't have to share his father with his eight siblings anymore, and he could finally have his mother all to himself, too. Well, of course there was Wendy, but he didn't mind sharing them with her. The blunette didn't seem to be the type to hog all of their attention, and his parents definitely seemed to be much more dedicated to their familial duties in this time period. He was sure that there was plenty of love, maybe even an excess of it, to go around amongst the four of them.

He cleared his throat, thinking of the other event he had planned for tonight, "Um…hey, Wendy?"

She turned over her shoulder at his call, "Yeah?"

"Do I have a…a phone?" the word felt strange on his tongue, but he'd done his best to remember it since he'd heard the word slip from Lucy's mouth when he'd seen her last, his fingers excitedly fingering the small sheet of yellow paper the blonde had given him, which he'd tucked into his pocket.

"Oh, I totally forgot!" She disappeared into the kitchen before returning with a small black device that resembled the one he'd seen in Lucy's hands earlier, though the blonde's had been white. The blunette plopped back down on the couch next to him and slid the phone into his waiting hands, "This is yours. I got it from the wreck. It's a good thing it didn't break. Do you remember how to unlock it?" She pointed to the black circle at the bottom of the glassy surface of what he assumed was the front, "Just press your thumb against that and it should scan your fingerprint."

He followed her instructions, his eyes widening in awe as the phone made a sound similar to a click and a bunch of tiny boxes were suddenly littered in a grid across the screen.

Wendy giggled as she looked to his messaging app, a small red circle with a number inside notifying her of the torrent of messages he'd received while his phone had been out of use, "Looks like quite a few people have been trying to talk to you. You should probably get on that. Some of your friends can be kind of scary sometimes. I wouldn't leave them waiting."

He stood from the couch, "Um…yeah. I'll…I"ll go get on that." He gave her a small wave as he excused himself from the space and dashed up the stairs to his room. His 'friends' could wait. He had someone else that he was much more eager to talk to, and he didn't want to keep her waiting.

* * *

Lucy startled from her almost sleep when the phone next to her head on her pillow suddenly started vibrating, the screen lighting up the dim room and stinging her eyes as she anxiously scanned over the caller information. It was an unknown number, which meant it might be who she'd fallen asleep waiting for. She quickly tapped 'answer' and excitedly pressed the phone to her ear.

Sleep still clung to her voice as she breathed out, "Hello?"

Her brows furrowed when at first when all she heard was a thrilled laugh. But she was quickly rolling her eyes and pulling the phone away from her ear when Natsu's excited voice blasted through the speaker, "Wow, Luce! This thing's amazing! It sounds like you're right next to me!"

"Yeah, welcome to the twenty-first century, Natsu," she giggled at his silliness, gaining an unexpected amount of joy from his reactions to the things of her time that she often took for granted. She swore his jaw had nearly had disconnected itself the day before when she'd walked with him through the hospital grounds during her visit, his eyes widening to their max when he caught sight of a traffic light beyond the fence on the hospital's perimeter.

She mindlessly traced the fingertips of her free hand over the patterns on her comforter, "Seems like you finally figured out how to call me. How'd you manage that?"

"Well, I just kinda tapped on a bunch of stuff until I saw numbers to press," he admitted, sounding a little embarrassed.

His tone drew a little laugh from the blonde. "So how was your day?" she asked with a soft smile on her face, content that they could finally have a somewhat normal conversation without having to worry about the throne or the empire or the ever looming threat of death like they used to. They could talk freely now, about whatever they wanted and whenever they wanted, not just when Natsu wasn't occupied by his kingly duties.

The salmon haired boy let out a heavy breath, though through the phone, she couldn't determine if it was a sigh of content or distress.

"I met my parents," he stated rather monotonously.

"Really?" that caught her off guard, her eyes widening a fraction. Worry was the first that emotion that registered through her, her mind wondering how Natsu would take having to accept two complete strangers as his parents. Of course Igneel and Grandeeny hadn't been the best parental figures, but despite their misdeeds, she knew that Natsu still cared for both of them deeply, as proven by his despair over their deaths all those years ago.

Warry of the answer she might receive, the blonde tentatively asked, "What were they like?"

"It was _them_ , Luce," he pressed. "It was Igneel and Grandeeny."

"What?!"

"Well, I…I mean it wasn't _really_ them, but…they're both still my parents, even if they don't remember the past." His tone suddenly shifted, sounding a lot more lively and even a little excited as he spoke, "Luce, you shoulda been there. She was worried for me. _My mother_ was worried about me. My father, too. I…I'm so happy, Luce. Their affection is all I ever wanted from them. Not the throne or protection or promises of wealth or anything else like that. I just wanted them to love me, and now I finally know what that feels like."

The blonde smiled softly, feeling like she was going to start tearing up herself at his happiness, "That's great, Natsu."

"Oh, and my sister! I can't wait for you to meet her, Luce. She's amazing! For dinner, she made me the best noodles I've ever had, and I swear I almost burned my tongue off because they were so spicy, but I loved it and I ate, like, three bowls of 'em."

Lucy giggled as he rambled on about his new life, still thoughtlessly tracing the design of her bedspread as she simply lay there, happy enough just listening to him speak.

Late night phone calls with her boyfriend were something she'd always dreamed of, and now they were finally a reality, and with someone whom she seriously loved and cherished more than anyone else no less.

They stayed up late into the night, talking about everything and nothing until they both fell asleep to the sounds of each other's voice.

* * *

 **AN**

 **I'm reeaalllly laying on the cheesy romance, aren't I?**

 **Oh my goodness, you guys made me so happy! I'm glad to see that you guys loved Scarlet Heart enough to still care about this sequel/epilogue, and I was positively overwhelmed by the response on the last chapter. Thank you guys so much for all of your support!**

 **So sorry for only having a few, barely there Nalu moments this chapter. Pretty much every chapter from here on out will have at least one hardcore Nalu moment though, so have no fear. They'll go on their first date in the modern world in the next chapter, so prepare yourselves for a fluff overload.**

 **A lot of information about Natsu's past was pulled from the real life Gwangjong of Goryeo, whom Natsu's character was based off of, so that's kind of why I did things the way I did. I wanted to continue on with making this story as realistic and historically accurate as possible like I did with Scarlet Heart.**

 **And yeah, I just went with Nashi for the name of Nalu's daughter because I'm not creative with names and it seemed like most people kind of accept it throughout the fandom, so I figured no harm could be done.**

 **Thanks for all of your suggestions! I was actually debating on how to deal with Igneel and Grandeeny for a while, and since a lot of people wanted to see some interactions between them and Natsu I've decided to include them in this sequel a lot more than I was originally planning on. I'd always planned for them to still be Natsu's parents in this time period, but I was debating on a lot of different situations for them to be in and how much of roll they'd play, so your reviews helped me decide how important they'd be.**

 **Also, in response to some of your reviews, I wanted to let you guys know that a Nalu wedding is a definite thing that's going to happen, but I'm going to give them the chance to experience being an actual boyfriend-girlfriend couple before that happens.**

 **I'm also now debating on having another character with memories from the past show up, just to give their character a more fulfilling end…idk though, let me know if you guys would be interested.**

 **Feel free to keep leaving your suggestions as this story progresses!**

 **As always, thanks for reading! And thank you to all those who followed, favorited, and reviewed! :)**


	3. Chapter 3: A Precious Life

**Forewarning: I'm kind of ignoring the fact that Natsu shouldn't know about our modern symbols for numbers just because I realized I forgot about that fact in the previous chapter with the phone call and I'm too lazy to go back and change it…hope it's not too much of a bother.**

* * *

"Luce…how does one use a microwave?"

Natsu pursed his lips in a childish pout when the blonde's giggling carried through his phone's speakers, her laughter like light, little chimes in his ear. His pout wasn't because he didn't like the sound of her laughter, he just hated being as incapable as he was with things that were clearly common knowledge in this time.

After she'd had her fair share of giggling over his inaptitude, she lightly started explaining, "Open the little door and put your food inside on the tray, then close the door and press the little buttons to enter how long you want your food to cook and press 'start.'"

The salmon haired man hummed in thought, following through with the first part of her instructions by shutting his bowl inside the strange metal box, "Okay. Sounds easy enough. But…for how long?"

"Depends. What are you heating up?"

"The leftover spicy noodles Wendy made me."

"You're eating spicy noodles this early in the morning?" She sounded kind of irritated, but not surprised.

"Yep," he hummed lightly. "And there's nothing you can do to stop me."

"Of course," the blonde exasperatedly breathed out, her heavy sigh carrying through the speakers. "Well…you probably only need to put them in for like, a minute and a half. You can always stick them back in for longer if they're not warm enough. So just hit the one, three, then the zero and that should do it."

He happily pressed the aforementioned buttons in their correct order, satisfied at the little beeps that followed his finger movements. He bit his lips, quietly and hesitantly asking, "Now…where's the start button? All I see is these weird little symbols…"

"Oh…" she mumbled out, a light gasp escaping her as if she'd had a sudden realization before her next words slipped from her mouth, " _Oh my god_ …I didn't even think about that…"

His brows furrowed, "Think about what?"

"Natsu, you…you…" Her voice kept fading in and out as if she was afraid to tell him something. He heard her take another deep breath before quietly, but sturdily informing him, "You won't be able to read a single thing in this time period."

' _Even the goddamn alphabet changed?!'_ He swallowed heavily. Reading had been one of the first things he'd learned as a young prince, and the fact that something which had come so inherently to him in his last life was now completely useless made him feel even more incapable. What kind of a man was he if he couldn't even read?

"Really?" he quietly muttered, hoping it was some kind of a joke, the strange symbols on the microwave buttons glaring at him all the while, heightening his fears.

"Yeah," Lucy regretfully breathed out. "We have a completely different alphabet now."

"And when…when did that happen?" he weakly muttered, still in shock.

"The fourteen hundreds. One of the kings wanted everyone in his empire to be able to read, not just the nobles, so he did away with the complicated symbols of your time. We've been using his alphabet ever since." At his silence, her voice grew more comforting, "He purposely made the alphabet really easy to learn though so that the commoners could pick it up fast. It's composed of symbols that each represent a sound as opposed to having a symbol for every single word like the alphabet of Ishgar did, so you should be able to get it down pretty fast. I'll help you out, too, so don't worry too much, 'kay?"

His lips quirked a little at the edges in a small smile, wondering how he'd been so lucky to have fallen in love with a girl like Lucy. Even after everything he'd done to her, she was still ceaselessly devoted to him, and his heart warmed every time he thought about the blonde.

He'd have to do everything he could in this life to make it up to her tenfold.

"'Kay…" he quietly hummed in response. He jumped a bit when his stomach let a growl loose, one so loud that he was sure Lucy could hear it through the phone, "Alright, so…now that we know I'm illiterate…what about my spicy noodles?"

"Oh yeah," she gently giggled. "I suppose most microwaves have their start button in the bottom right corner, but I'm not a microwave expert, so I'm not sure."

He lightly shrugged his shoulders, "Might as well just push it and see what happens." He pressed the little button in the corner, another small beep following after his finger. He stumbled back a few steps in surprise when he saw the light inside the microwave turn on to illuminate his food spinning on the tray, a strange sounding hum issuing from the little metal box.

The salmon haired man was silent for a seconds, waiting for it to explode or god knows what else, before he quietly, uncertainly mumbled, "I…I think it's working?"

"Sounds like it is," Lucy giggled again, obviously picking up on his doubtful tone.

"Now I just wait?"

"Yep," she answered simply. "It might be kind of hot though when you take it out, so be careful."

He let out an excited laugh when the little metal boxed beeped and the light inside turned off, hurriedly opening the door and basking in the sharp smell of his spicy meal. No matter how confusing the items of this time were, they were certainly convenient, and he happily grabbed his now warm bowl from the tiny compartment. He settled at the table, stuffing his mouth with the warmed spicy noodles and mumbling to Lucy in between bites about how excited he was for his parents' arrival later that evening. She halfheartedly chastised him as she heard him speak with his mouth full, but her tone never lost its cheerful lilt.

After a pleasant lull in the conversation, Natsu suddenly, determinedly proposed, "Lucy…we should go do something to together."

"You mean like a date?" the blonde lightly questioned.

His brows furrowed as he forked another mouthful of noodles into his mouth, swallowing before he blurted, "What's a 'date?'"

Lucy giggled again, happily explaining, "It's when two people who like each other spend time together. Like when we would go on boat rides or stargaze. Those were dates."

"Oh."

The blonde let out a small breath, "So…what do you want to do?"

Natsu shrugged his shoulders, not thinking about how the girl couldn't see him, "I don't know…what is there to do these days?"

Lucy hummed in thought, "Well…I guess we could start off slow and just go for a walk around town. I don't know…I don't want to freak you out too much when you've only been here for a few days."

"Uh, yeah…" he nodded. "I'd appreciate taking it slow. I want to adjust quickly, but…if I'm being completely honest, it's a lot to take in."

"I understand," she reassured. "Don't forget, I went through the same exact thing when I woke up in Ishgar. Though, I have feeling that coming to the future from the past might a bit harder than the reverse. At least I knew a bit about where I was and how things worked. You probably had no idea…"

"Yeah, I didn't, but...It really hasn't been that bad other than the crippling confusion," he lightly chuckled, his lips quirking at the corners. "I've got you, I've got my sister, and my parents will be home soon. I think I'll make it by here just fine if you're all by my side."

"That's good to hear, Natsu," she hummed lightly.

He cleared his throat, "So…how about that date?"

* * *

It had taken a lot to for Natsu to figure out where he lived so that Lucy could find him, the former King nervously hunching into himself as he ventured out into the modern world on his own for the first time to find the signs that Lucy promised him would be at the end of his street. His illiteracy had even further complicated things, the blonde quickly giving up on trying to understand his description of the letters on the sign and instead explaining how to take and send a picture, which had taken nearly twenty minutes on its own. Finding the little numbers on the front of his house had been less of a chore, but by then, they were both nearly fed up with the complicated mess of finding one another.

However, now that he was by Lucy's side, contentedly strolling the streets of the modern world, Natsu had decided that the entire ordeal had definitely been worth it. They'd opted to walk from the Dragneel home to their small city center due to his loathing of cars, and on the way, the salmon haired man had further discovered that architecture and culture had evolved into something he could never have imagined, buildings composed of materials he'd never seen and reaching far into the sky.

The scale and intrigue of the modern world aside, he was eternally grateful for every moment he got to spend with Lucy. She seemed happier and more comfortable in this time, her arm contentedly laced through his and a soft smile never leaving her features as she excitedly pointed things out and explained them to him. She was still the same Lucy she'd always been, but without the constant fears that came along with life in the palace, she was even more vibrant and therefore more stunning to his gaze.

The salmon haired boy swallowed heavily as he thought over another change he'd noticed in his blonde, his cheeks tinting slightly pink as for the first time, he noticed how form fitting and revealing her clothes were. He'd figured out on the night that they'd first given themselves to wholly to one another that the hanboks she'd worn had done her perfect figure no justice. However, the clothes she wore now were quite the contrary. Her cream shirt was perfectly tight against her frame, highlighting both her chest and her thin waist, and the blue skirt she wore only fell to the middle of her thighs, her long, thin legs stretching far beyond the ruffled fabric. Even if he'd seen it all before and even ran his hands along nearly every inch of her skin, having her body revealed to his eyes in a way it'd never been before still warmed his cheeks.

He thought that the more comfortable, rather simplistic clothing of the modern world suited her better than the hanboks of his time, too. The dresses of the Ishgar Dynasty, with their many layers, wrappings, and elaborate embroideries, had always been too pristine and perfectly put together for someone as passionate and stubborn as her. The clothes she wore now were more freeing and therefore he'd decided that suited her personality better, and even with the fascinating, completely foreign modern world all around him, it was hard to tear his gaze off of her.

Quite like the salmon haired boy, Lucy's focus was also devotedly attached to the sight before her, her gaze traveling through the glass of a display window to look at the footage on a TV that had been set up just inside the shop.

Natsu followed her focus, "Who's that?"

"The Queen," the blonde hummed in admiration as she watched the green haired woman on the screen wave to the crowd below her podium with a warm smile on her face. "Her name's Hisui."

His eyes lit up at the mention of royalty, his focus whipping to Lucy as he blurted, "Is there a King? Is he one of my descendants?"

She lightly giggled at his excitement, "Sorry Natsu, but the Ishgar Empire dissolved quite some time ago, and along with it, your family fell out of power. The country we live in now is called Fiore and it's a democracy, not an empire."

He furrowed a brow at the term, and she comfortably explained, "That means the common people get to vote on who holds power. The Queen still holds quite a bit of power, but she's got a whole parliament of people to help her out, too. That's where the people's votes come into play. The positions of king and queen really just exist for the sake of tradition. Oh, and to answer your first question, there's no King. Just Hisui. She inherited the throne from her father only a few months ago."

"A female rules the entire country?" His tone didn't sound judgmental, but it carried a great deal of surprise.

Lucy nodded her head, a soft smile on her face, "Yep. Equality was one thing about the future I didn't really appreciate as much as I should have until I lived without it during the Ishgar dynasty. Anyone can be anything, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, or financial standing." Her enthusiasm deflated a fraction as she quietly continued, "Well…at least that's the idea. We've come a long way in terms of establishing equality, but…we definitely still have a long way to go."

Natsu hummed as he looked back to the screen, thinking over the things he'd done during his reign under Lucy's wishes to help promote the very cause she'd talked about.

The blonde leaned over in front of him, a warm grin on her features as she stated, "You should know that it's thanks to you, in part." She unlinked their arms only to lace her fingers through his as she happily rocked back on her heels, "I did a bit of research on you the other day. I know about all of your reforms to establish equality between the classes. In our country, you were the first monarch to do such a thing, so you're a pretty big deal."

He modestly cleared his throat in embarrassment at her praise, nervously scratching the back of his neck as he self-consciously inquired, "What…what else did you find out about me? Anything bad?" His thoughts were focused on the end of his reign, when he'd fallen out of the people's favor. He didn't want her to know that after all of their hard work to gain the throne, he came very close to losing it on a few occasions.

Her warm grin slowly faded as she processed his question, her gaze dropping to the ground, "I...didn't really want to see too much because I wanted to give you the chance to tell me about your life after I died before I went searching for information myself. But…I…I did read about you and Minerva…and your children."

Natsu's smile faded away as well, a heavy weight settling in his gut at the thought of the dark haired woman. He hadn't thought about his half-sister, he still refused to think of her as his wife, since he'd woken up in the modern world. But now that he'd been reminded of her, the heavy weight of loathing and regret that always accompanied the thought of Minerva piled itself up inside of him once more. Marrying her had been the greatest regret of his life, even if he'd only agreed to it in order to keep Lucy safe from Minerva and Sting's threats.

After the blonde's death, for the sake of keeping the throne, he'd had to commit even worse deeds that involved the dark haired woman. Their first child had been a product of Natsu's carnal desire to make Sting suffer for everything he'd done to Lucy, but every child after that had been conceived for the sake of having children with which they could make political ties through marriage to secure the throne and prevent the families that still held power from revolting. The act of conceiving had been nearly unbearable for the King, and the only way he'd been able to endure the deed was to consume enough alcohol beforehand to fog his consciousness to the point of being unable to remember the event.

As Natsu turned his focus back to the blonde, he wasn't surprised to see that she looked troubled, her eyes half-lidded and her bottom lip caught between her teeth in contemplation. When he noticed that she was getting herself ready to say something, he prepared himself to receive all of her hate and loathing. It was what he thought he deserved and then some, and she had every right to hate to him for betraying her. In his mind, that was exactly what he'd done, regardless of the fact that he'd engaged in those activities with Minerva purely for the political stability he'd gain from his actions rather than passion and affection.

Contrary to what he expected, she didn't comment any further on his past, her voice quiet and tentative as she asked, "Natsu…how long did you say you had before you had to be back home?"

"Wendy said she'd be home from school around three," he answered gently, still wary that she might snap at any second. Her irises were quivering, and her hand was trembling within his grasp.

The blonde nodded softly, her gaze still on the ground as she anxiously licked her lips, "Then…can I take you somewhere quiet? There's…there's something I need to tell you."

"Oh…of course."

He let her drag him down the street without any complaint or resistance, his thoughts focused on what was troubling her so.

* * *

Lucy nervously twiddled the tips of her fingers together, nervously teething her bottom lip as she thought over how she wanted to start explaining herself. Natsu was seated quietly on the bench beside her, patiently waiting for her to be ready and distracting himself by watching the children on the nearby playground jump and swing around each other. She'd taken him to a small park, one with a lake that was incredibly reminiscent of the one they often used to visit together on the palace grounds. The similarity of their surroundings made her more comfortable, and despite the laughter and delighted shrieks of the nearby children, the park was rather serene, the only other sounds being the light chirping of birds, the rustling of leaves, and the trickling of the water in the lake.

She swallowed to ease the tightening of her throat as she thought over what she was about to say, licking her lips anxiously before she quietly began, "Natsu…did you ever see Loke again after I died?"

He let out a heavy sigh, "Yeah…I released him from his exile only a few years after you passed, too. Why?"

Lucy nervously fingered the bracelet on her left wrist, her voice still soft as she continued, "Did…did he ever have a little girl with him?"

Natsu's mood seemed to dampen a bit at her question, his eyes darkening and his gaze dropping. He was silent for a moment, as if in inner turmoil, and when he spoke again, his voice had an edge of pain to it, "Yeah. A little blonde. She…she was yours, right?"

She sucked in a quick breath, the traces of disdain in his voice giving his thought process away. It was obvious that he thought the girl was hers and Loke's.

As she worked up the courage to tell him the truth, tears began to gather in eyes without her really knowing why. Maybe it was in fear of his reaction, or maybe it was sorrow over the fact that her daughter had obviously grown up without ever knowing her _real_ father, because Lucy was sure that Loke had been like a father to the girl. Maybe the tears were attributed to the guilt she felt for the massive burden she'd discharged upon Loke, or maybe the reason they were there was a horrid mixture of all three reasons.

Despite her lack of knowledge of their cause, the tears were still there, threatening to spill from her eyes as she quietly admitted, "Loke…wasn't her father." She slowly lifted her gaze to Natsu's, her tears silently slipping free and sliding down her skin in two thin lines, "Her father was _you_. That little girl…she was _ours,_ Natsu."

His process of realization was slow, and each stage of his progression was vividly visible in his features. First, he stared at her in silence. Then, his eyes widened and his mouth dropped open a small fraction. And the last, most heart wrenching change in his features was the gathering of tears in his eyes.

She thought he might get angry with her, but instead, his gaze fell to the ground, his voice choked, "Why…why didn't Loke tell me?"

Lucy sniffled, her own voice quivering slightly, "It was my dying wish that she be kept from the palace. If someone were to find out that she was the daughter of the King…nothing could've been done to stop them from forcing her to live the life of a princess." She quickly swiped at the tears on her cheeks as she sniffled again, her voice becoming more firm as she explained, "I went through hell whilst in the palace, and I wasn't going to let my daughter face the same fate. I made Loke promise that he would protect her and treat her like she was his own child."

Natsu softly nodded his head, as if in agreement to her reasoning. He was silent for a few moments as he continued to come to terms with the information she'd told him, his voice steadier than it had been before as he tentatively asked, "So…so when you left the palace…you were pregnant?"

"Yeah," the blonde admitted. "According to the doctor, I was supposed to live for ten more years...but giving birth to her was what pushed me closer to death. I only lived for a month afterwards."

He was silent once more, unmoving as he continued to stare at the ground and process the revelation.

And Lucy patiently let him sit in silence, not wanting to force him to share his thoughts even though she was desperate to hear them. She couldn't blame him for his lack of response, especially since he seemed to have run into the girl a few times if his earlier comments were anything to go by.

The blonde swallowed heavily again as she thought about how to handle the delicate situation she'd created, her dread over telling him preventing her from thinking about it beforehand.

She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear as she quickly decided her route, trusting in her own knowledge of him and firmly believing that she was going in the right direction with her next words. She'd resolved to show him that even if he'd never known their daughter, there was joy to be found in the fact that she had _been_ in the first place. Living during the Ishgar Dynasty had taught her a lot about the successes and trials of life, and it had given her a whole new perspective on and appreciation for the simple fact that she _existed_ and _lived_ when so many had had their lives stolen away from them. Her friends who had lost their lives aside, countless soldiers were killed in war every day, slaves and the poor died of malnutrition and harsh working conditions, and even nobles and royals were assassinated by those who were overcome with envy and vengeance.

The cruelties of the ancient world had made her realize exactly how precious life was, and so she quietly, tentatively began to recount the details of the treasured life that she had so cherished in the last month of her time in Ishgar, "Our daughter…her name was Nashi…the first half of your name and second half of mine. Before I died, in that one month I had with her, she rarely cried." A watery grin spread across her lips as she thought about her daughter, with whom she had only spent a few weeks, "She giggled a lot…the wet nurse said she'd never seen a baby that smiled as much as Nashi did. She ate a lot, too, just like you. Her hair was starting to grow in the same color as mine, but she had your eyes." A light laugh slipped through the blonde's lips as she recalled another detail, "She didn't really like to be held by anyone but me, but she was most certainly the worst whenever she was in Loke's arms. She bit him a lot and fussed nonstop when he held her…She was definitely your daughter."

Her voice faded out as she ran out things to say. Only now was she realizing how cruel it was that she had died before she'd really known her daughter, and her sorrow steadily grew larger as she realized that not only did Nashi never know her father, but she'd never known her mother as well.

But the blonde forced herself to swallow down her regret, reassuring herself that she'd made the right decision in keeping Nashi a secret up until now. To grow up without both parents was a terrible thing, but she knew for certain that living in the palace was an even worse fate.

When she was done speaking, she finally glanced over at the salmon haired man. The sunlight that reflected off of the nearby lake caught in the tears silently streaming down his cheeks, but the weight in her heart lessened as she saw the soft smile on his face.

He sniffled and rubbed at his eyes, glancing over at her a few times as he quietly reassured her, "You…you did the right thing, Luce. If I had known who she was...it would've been hard to keep myself distant from her. I would've been condemning her to the same fate as you…" He reached across to pull her hand into his lap and thread his fingers through hers, not missing the fact that she needed some comforting, too, "Loke…he was a good father to her. Whenever I saw her, she was always smiling. They both were."

A small laugh of relief slipped through her lips before she could stop it, her fingers affectionately returning his warm grasp, "That's good…I'm sorry I can't tell you more about her. My last days…I don't remember much about them."

He gave her a squeeze of reassurance, "Its okay, Luce. I know you did everything for her that you could."

She swallowed heavily as she nodded her head, lightly coughing to ease the remaining tightness in her throat, "If you would like to…we can see if there's any records of her. Maybe if we look into Loke, she'll be tied to him somewhere, and then we can find out more about her together."

"I'd like that, Luce," he quietly hummed.

She scooted closer to him and silently rested her head on his shoulder, both of their gazes turning to the children on the nearby play structure as they clasped their hands tightly together.

The blonde felt his chest rise and lower as he let out a heavy breath, his voice low as he spoke, "Luce…thanks for telling me."

She lightly traced her thumb over the back of his hand, "We both promised that we were going to move on, didn't we? I wouldn't have been able to if I'd kept Nashi to myself. Besides, you admitted to everything you did in the past. There's no reason for me not to do the same."

There was comfortable silence between them for a few moments before Natsu quietly, tentatively suggested, "Let's…let's have a kid again in the future, okay? Then we can both get the chance to be good parents and make up for the past."

Her lips quirked in a small smile, "Just one?"

She felt his chin lightly bump against her hair as he shook his head, "Nope. As many as we can. We're gonna fill the house with them."

She let out a small giggle as she pulled her head off of his shoulder, turning to face him with a smug grin on her face, "'Kay…but you have to marry me first. And since we have this second chance, I expect an excellent proposal this time around. You can't just randomly ask me at dinner like you did last time." She jokingly rubbed the tip of her nose against his as she quipped, "You better brush up on modern proposals if you want to meet my expectations."

He childishly pursed his lips at her indirect insult to his means of conducting business, but he couldn't keep the grin from his face as he halfheartedly jibbed, "Of course, _my queen._ Nothing but the best for you."

Their faces were still just a breath's width apart from when Lucy had brushed her nose against his, and now that there were no words passing between them, they were both hyper aware of their closeness.

The blonde's eyes were the first to drop, her gaze quickly dipping to his lips before snapping back up to meet his gaze once more.

At her hesitation to move forward, Natsu took the initiative of closing the gap, firmly pressing his lips against hers. After living without the blonde for thirty years, it was hard to hold himself back, but he kept the kiss decent enough for public, not bothering to withhold any of his affection.

Lucy pressed against him just as hard, one of her hands coming to rest on his thigh as she leaned in, relishing in the first kiss they'd shared since his arrival in this time.

They pulled apart after a brief moment, mindful of the disapproving stares a few parents were passing their way as the kiss got more passionate with time.

The blonde giggled as their moment of affectionately gazing at each other after their kiss was interrupted by a rather loud growl, her focus dropping to the salmon haired boy's stomach.

Natsu nervously chuckled to himself, scratching the back of his head as he tentatively suggested, "So...how about we go get some food?"

* * *

 **AN**

 **I apologize for the long wait for this chapter and also for the fact that its shorter than the last, but I spent the last month of my summer busily writing ahead for the next fic that I'm publishing instead of working on this. My college started back up again on Monday, so I wrote a bit ahead to make sure I had stuff to post for that next fic, since it will have a steady update schedule and I'll be busy as hell this semester. The first chapter of that will be up on Friday! I hope you'll all stop by and give it a read ;)**

 **This chapter turned out waaaaay different then I originally intended. Their first date was supposed to be super fluffy and angst free, but it didn't feel quite right when I started writing this chapter, so I switched up my plans and decided to get the matter of the daughter out of the way! I think that this chapters works better this way, though for those of you who wanted a super fluffy first date chapter, I tried to make up for it by adding in their first kiss in the modern world at the end! Plus the talk about kiddies :)**

 **We'll find out more about how Natsu lost the people's favor during his reign later, and in the next chapter, Igneel and Grandeeny will arrive home! We may meet some more of the modern counterparts to some the Scarlet Heart characters, too! I don't really have a solid plan yet, but I want to start getting more of them in here, so we'll see how it turns out!**

 **As always, thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4: Homecoming

"Is…is that?"

"Oh my god…." Lucy breathed out. "I think it is."

"No way," Natsu unconsciously tightened his grip on the blonde's hand.

They'd just come back from their little walk around town, and they'd returned to find the salmon haired boy's house not as vacant as he'd thought it would be. The unfamiliar car parked near the mail box had been the first clue, and the two figures standing on his home's front porch, clearly waiting for an answer at the front door, were a clear sign that he wasn't going to get the relaxing, solitary afternoon he'd been planning with Lucy.

The salmon haired boy had just barely set foot on the path to his front door when there was suddenly a furl of scarlet hair as one of the figures whipped to face him, accompanied by an angry screech of, "Natsu Dragneel!"

His hand slowly slipped from Lucy's as an unexplainable feeling of sheer terror washed over him, his Adam's apple bobbing as he gulped and shrunk back into himself, hesitantly beginning, "Er…Erza?"

The woman all but launched herself off of the porch at him, stomping towards him and planting her legs wide as her hands found his shoulders, her tone accusing as she roared, "You and Gray go and nearly get yourselves killed, and then you ignore all of my texts and calls?!" Her hands clenched even tighter on his shoulders, "Do you have any idea how worried I was?!"

Natsu instinctively leaned backwards to distance himself from the woman, his eyes wide. Anything he might want to say in response got caught in his throat on the way up, his chest tight with fear, but also surprise and awe. Of course she was yelling at him, and there was no doubt in his mind that the look on her face was more than enough to scare the shit out of anyone. But there was irrefutably concern mixed in with the anger pooled in her irises, too, her worry obviously the motivation for her outburst. He'd never been particularly close with the Erza of the Ishgar Dynasty, but it was blatantly obvious to him that she held the Natsu of this time quite dear.

His eyes quickly darted to the side before snapping back to her face. He was unsure of how to respond, so he settled for mumbling, "Uh, I'm…sorry?"

"You better be," her features held firm for a moment before her expression was overcome with affection, her sudden change in emotion accompanied by the shifting of her arms as she tugged the salmon haired boy into a crushing hug.

Natsu yelped as his head was not-so-gently smashed against the redhead's chest, her arms winding around his neck and holding him hostage. It was a bit hard for him to breathe, and being so close to someone that wasn't Lucy was a foreign feeling. The blonde was the only girl he'd ever hugged before, and even if he wasn't hugging Erza back, it was still strange to have someone to show him such affection.

He supposed the times really had changed, and that it was okay for one to openly show their care for their loved ones without fearing that their relation would bring danger or harm.

"Careful, Erza," another voice called, one that was painfully familiar to Natsu. It belonged to the person that'd been standing on the porch with Erza, though now it sounded like they stood on the sidewalk just behind the scarlet haired woman, "He's still hurt."

The redhead pulled back with a gasp as if she'd just remembered what had happened to salmon haired boy, her hands returning to his shoulders as she bowed her head in deep regret and repentance, "My apologies. Please, strike me for my carelessness."

"I…what?" Natsu stuttered, taken aback by how different this Erza was from the one of his time. He'd never seen her display such theatricality, and to hear her offer a chance at smacking her was something he'd never imagined he'd witness. He shook his head when she clenched her features as if in preparation for receiving the blow, "No, I'm…I'm not gonna hit you." He adopted his usual bright smile, "Besides, I feel fine. Just a little bit sore."

"That's good to hear. We were worried about you."

Now that his head was free from Erza's tight grasp, Natsu turned his focus to the person who'd spoken, finding the blue haired man standing only a short distance from them, leaning against the railing of the porch's steps. Although he'd already known who it was that accompanied the scarlet haired woman, Natsu's heart jumped as he got his first good look at this time's Jellal, his mind suddenly overflowing with memories of the only one of his brothers that had stayed by his side from when he'd started living in the place again to when he'd been enthroned.

He was eternally grateful for Jellal's undying loyalty, though he certainly hadn't shown it, especially when Erza had taken the leap that ended her life. Although he knew that the red head's end had been of her own volition, he still felt somewhat guilty for her death. He'd been the one to draft the tenet that had empowered her to deliver her message by suicide, and in his panic to solidify his power at the beginning of his reign, he'd done little to comfort his brother in the aftermath.

He did a quick look over of his brother, finding that he looked just as sturdy and wise as he ever had, though the somewhat messy blue mop of hair was definitely a new style. The salmon haired boy's eyebrow ticked a little in annoyance when noticed that the Jellal of this time was a bit taller than his past self (were all of his brothers taller than him in this period?!), and that he was a bit more physically built. And of course, the component of his former brother's appearance that he couldn't ignore was the maroon tattoo on the right side of his face, spanning both above and below his eye.

In their past lives, the mark been forced upon his face by his mother and grandfather for the sake of declaring him to be a member of the royal lineage of the conquered country of Seven even though his father was the ruler of Ishgar. Natsu had found familiarity with him for that reason, both of their faces forcibly marred by their mothers when they'd been too young to do a thing to stop it. Unlike his salmon haired brother, however, the thirteenth prince had always taken pride in his lineage despite how it'd been forced upon him, and therefore he'd bore his tattooed face proudly.

Natsu wondered what significance the mark held to the blue haired man now, and that if the reformed country of Seven to the east of their modern country of Fiore had anything to do with it.

"Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

Erza's sudden inquiry pulled him out of his thoughts, and he turned to find her with her brows furrowed in concern, "There's a weird look in your eyes."

The salmon haired boy just grinned back, "Yep. Totally fine. I'm just happy to see you guys." Remembering how he was supposed to be acting, as an afterthought, he added, "I may not be able to remember much, but I know that you guys are my friends. And that makes me happy."

A warm giggle suddenly sounded out from behind him.

Erza's eyes shifted to girl who'd been silently standing at the start of the path to the porch during their entire conversation, her voice polite and lacking it's former firm edge, "Excuse me, but…who are you?"

"Oh," the blonde jumped a bit as everyone's attention suddenly turned to her, her hand lifting in a hint of a wave as she took a few steps towards them with a soft smile spread across her features, "I'm Lucy. Lucy Heartfilia."

"Nice to meet you, Lucy," the red head gripped her hand in a firm handshake, smiling just as favorably as the blonde, "I'm Erza."

"I know."

Natsu resisted the urge to face-palm at Lucy's response, and the blonde looked like she was mentally kicking herself for her lack of eloquence. This was the first time she'd met one of the modern reincarnations of their friends from the Ishgar Dynasty, save for her encounters with Laxus and Gildarts earlier. She hadn't had the chance to talk much with Laxus given the pounding headache she'd had at the time, and when she'd run into the palace astronomer's doppelganger she hadn't yet remembered the past. And now that she thought about the things he'd said and the way he'd acted, she was absolutely certain that Gildarts was just like her and Natsu, that he'd somehow found his way into the future. She'd have to hunt him down later, both for the sake of her curiosity and for Natsu's sake too, since she knew how much the salmon haired boy had counted on the astronomer in their past life.

Regardless, the fact that the dear friends she'd lost and left behind were now here in this life too, whether they had their memories of the past or not, was a hard thing to comprehend. It was difficult not to settle back into the habits she'd formed with them in the past, and she knew that growing accustomed to the people they were in this life would take some time.

At least she had Natsu here with her to combat the strange feeling, and she knew they'd both be relying heavily on one another as they continued to accept the past and adapt to their lives now.

"So Lucy, how do you know Natsu?" Erza snidely endeavored. She hadn't missed the fact that the pair had been holding hands upon approach, and her inner obsession for anything involving romance was slowly crawling its way to the surface.

"Oh…" the blonde scrambled for an answer. Although she was sure that people like her and Natsu were normally called boyfriend and girlfriend, they hadn't officially declared themselves as such. Though admittedly, she wasn't sure Natsu knew that such a thing had to be done or if he even knew that such terms existed. But the confused mess of things that was hers and Natsu's love life aside, she didn't know how well this times Erza knew Natsu, and therefore introducing herself as his girlfriend could get tricky. She opted for a simpler answer, one that wouldn't seem too suspicious, as she gave the red head a pleasant smile, "We're just friends."

A massive grin spread across the scarlet haired woman's features, her voice a strange mixture of rage and unadulterated joy as she screeched, "Why didn't you tell me you had a girlfriend, you idiot?!" And suddenly, Natsu's head was slamming back into Erza's chest as she wrapped her arms around him once more, her voice singsong as she professed, "I'm so happy for you!"

Lucy stared at the display with wide eyes. Were they really that obvious? Or was it just that she was a horrible liar? Or maybe Erza was some super psychic feelings reader or something?

Regardless, the blonde was happy to have the fact that her and Natsu were together out in the open. She thought they'd have to hide their relationship for a while given the fact that this time's Natsu had had no interaction with her whatsoever, so his sudden devotion to her, a complete stranger, would undoubtedly raise suspicion among his family and friends. But Natsu had told her that the him of this time had an apartment on the east side of town, and based off of the redhead's lack of suspicion, she supposed that he must've had his own, independent life just like any normal twenty five year old would.

Her worries set at ease, Lucy took advantage of the fact that this time's Erza and Jellal didn't know her, acting like the newcomer they thought she was and prying for the information that both she and Natsu desperately wanted to know. She gestured with her hand between the two, her voice somewhat hesitant as she began, "And, are you two…?"

"Engaged," Jellal finished, a small but proud grin on his features.

A bright grin broke out across Lucy's features, her heart soaring and threatening to burst out of her chest. The Jellal and Erza of Ishgar had never gotten the chance to marry, and the idea of witnessing their romance finally come to fruition in this time made her want to burst into tears.

"Really?!" Natsu's forced himself out of Erza's hold, looking between the two of them with wide, excited eyes, a massive grin on his face, "That's awesome!"

Lucy didn't miss the brief look of sorrow that flashed across Erza's features at his reaction, knowing it must've hurt the red head to see the salmon haired boy react as if he was hearing the news for the first time. His apparent memory loss had to be hard for all of his friends and family to accept, and she couldn't imagine what they'd all felt as they heard the news.

Of course, such wasn't the case, but the reality of the situation wasn't any less grim. The Natsu they'd known was gone, though none of them knew it.

The blonde swallowed heavily at the thought, immediately deciding in her heart that one day, she and Natsu would have to tell their friends the truth. It was only fair, no matter how hard that truth would be to hear.

But she tucked the resolution aside for the moment, forcing her bright smile back onto her face as she fought to revive the positive atmosphere, "When's the wedding?"

That set Erza off, the red head babbling on and on about the details seemingly without end as Jellal watched on fondly, adding in his own comments every now and then. Their love for each other was blatantly apparent in each of their voices and gazes, and Lucy and Natsu both observed the pair with an overwhelming, fuzzy feeling of warmth in their chests.

Jellal and Erza had deserved a happy ending, and now, it seemed that they were finally going to get it.

* * *

"So…that word Erza said earlier…'girlfriend'…what does it mean?"

Lucy's cheeks warmed as she lifted her head to stare at the boy she was entangled with on the bed, shifting in his hold so she could look at his face better. They'd practically ran to collapse on his bed the moment Erza and Jellal had left the home, both of them curling up on the small mattress and somehow finding a comfortable position in the cramped space. Natsu was on his back with Lucy tucked into his side, though their lower halves were a mess of intertwined legs.

They hadn't been given many chances to simply lay beside each other before due to the restrictions of Natsu's status as King, so the salmon haired boy was happily taking advantage of every moment of intimacy with the blonde that he could get. They hadn't cross the line into sexual territory just yet, although they had done a bit of making out earlier, both of them just content being in the other's presence.

Lucy bit her bottom lip, unsure of how to explain the modern term in a way Natsu would comprehend, "Well, girlfriend means…I guess it's kind of like the step before fiancée. It's means that we're a couple."

His brows furrowed as he hesitantly questioned, "So…your my girlfriend and I'm yours?"

Lucy sputtered, her head falling forward onto his chest as she burst into laughter, "Oh god Natsu, did you not notice the word _girl_?" She snorted, albeit somewhat unattractively, but she was too amused to care, "Last time I checked, you're definitely male and that makes you my _boy_ friend."

Natsu's cheeks flared in embarrassment, hurrying to defend himself as he stammered, "I…well, I don't know how you modern folk work! I've seen some crazy stuff! I've learned not to make assumptions based on what I know about you crazies!"

She chose to ignore his humorous use of the old-fashioned word 'folk' as she giggled, "Yeah, but gender's been around since the beginning of time, silly." Her tone became teasing, "Thought you would've learned to tell the difference by now with how you were gawking at my chest when we walking around town earlier."

"I-I was not!" His cheeks matched the hue of his hair, "And stop laughing!"

"Nope!" she childishly poked her tongue through her lips. "My _girlfriend's_ just too funny, so I can't stop." She pushed herself off of his chest and scooted to kneel towards the bottom of the bed as she took a jab at his comforter, "You'll have to make me, dragon boy!"

The moment the words 'make me' slipped through her mouth, the atmosphere in the room shifted, and the pleasant moment they'd spent together unintentionally turning into something a lot more daring and fiery.

Realizing what she'd done, Lucy gulped, beginning to feel hot upon catching sight of the vicious smirk spread across Natsu's lips as he sat up, all traces of his earlier embarrassment gone and a low chuckle that sent shivers down her spine slipping through his lips, "Challenge accepted."

Despite her former drive to win their little jab battle, the blonde felt like she might melt into a puddle, and she did nothing to escape him as he dove for her, grabbing hold of her wrists and shoving her backwards. He pinned her arms above her head, his weight settling onto her hips in the best way possible. His lips were on hers before she could even process her sudden change in position, but she wasn't complaining, kissing him back with just as much force.

They'd only made love once in their past life, and while Lucy was a firm believer that craving for sex wasn't always a necessary step in showing love, she certainly did have the desire to indulge in the act with the salmon haired man as many times as fate would allow, not because she lusted after him but because she loved more than anyone else in the entire world.

She wasn't even sure if sex was on the former king's mind at the moment, but she certainly hoped it was, and with the way he was kissing her, it definitely seemed like they were heading in that direction.

Natsu suddenly pulled back and to her chagrin, she involuntarily let out a small whimper of disappointment, his hands slipping from her wrists and a victorious smirk settling on his features as he stared down at her flustered face, satisfaction in his voice as he taunted, "Am I enough _boyfriend_ for you now, Lucy?"

"Shut up and keep kissing me, you idiot," her now free hands shot forward to bury in the collar of his shirt, tugging his mouth back to hers.

He chuckled against her lips but complied, because after all the years they'd spent apart, how could he refuse a request from his queen?

* * *

"Well, someone's excited."

Natsu glanced to Wendy as she giggled at him, or, more specifically, at how he was bouncing on the balls of his feet, his hands tucked into his red sweatshirt as his eyes shot from place to place.

He huffed out a quick breath, his focus turning back to the moving stairs that his sister had called an escalator, "Actually…I think ' _nervous_ ' is a better word." His parents would be coming down the moving stairs any minute if what Wendy had said was correct, and despite how excited he'd been on their drive to the airport, his heart had sunk into worry and fear upon stepping into the building. Seeing Igneel and Grandeeny over video was one thing, but he really didn't how he'd react to seeing them in person.

The bluenette's brows furrowed, her voice losing its teasing lilt, "Why? It's just mom and dad."

"I'm nervous _because_ it's them," he grumbled, uncaring of the fact that his sister wouldn't fully understand his anxiety. Once he saw them, would he even be able to speak? He hadn't been able to say much the last time they'd talked, and he was sure that it'd be worse when they were actually standing before him, undeniably there and not just some image on a screen.

"You don't have to be," Wendy hummed softly, smiling gently as she looped one of her arms through his so she could give him an affectionate tug. "Even if you don't remember much about them, they're still your mom and dad. They'd give the world for us, and you losing your memory isn't going to change that."

Natsu's gaze fell to the floor. It seemed too good to be true. His video chat with them a couple nights ago had seemed like a dream, and even while it'd happened he'd had a strange sense of hopeful denial. He wanted so desperately for it to be true that he told himself his expectations were astronomically high; that there was no way the former King and Queen of Ishgar could hold such care for him, even if it wasn't really them.

Any incarnation of his mother surely had to despise him with the same animosity she'd held for him up until her death. And his father had always been more devoted to his throne than to his children, and despite his obvious care for them, his country had always come first. Surely such kingly devotion wouldn't fade, even if it had been over a thousand years.

"Oh, here they come!"

Natsu's gaze slowly drifted upwards at Wendy's sudden exclamation, his eyes going wide as he caught sight of his parents, their eyes similarly finding him and Wendy in the crowd as the bluenette raised her hand above her head in a wave.

Tears immediately surfaced in Grandeeny's eyes. She all but ran down the escalator and weaved through the crowd towards her children, leaving her husband behind to cart their luggage all on his own.

"Oh, Natsu!"

The salmon haired boy stood completely still as she flung her arms around his taller frame, the woman hugging him so tight that his breathing was slightly hindered. He didn't do anything to attempt to ease the passage of air into his lungs though, still in awe as he stared down at the top of the blue hair of head that was buried in his chest.

It was real. _She_ was real. And so was her concern, the quivering of her frame against his giving her crying away. He could just barely hear her sobs over the bustling of the crowds in the airport too, and he realized that it'd been stupid of him to feel so afraid of seeing her again. Regardless of whether not she cared for him, he should've been overjoyed at the opportunity to reunite with his dear mother, whom he'd relentlessly cared for despite her loathing of him. But now that he knew she undeniably cared for him, he felt himself nearly melting inside, the frigid anxiety in his chest dissolving into warm tingles.

He gently wrapped his arms around her quivering frame in return, swallowing heavily in a vain attempt at easing his tightened throat, his voice somewhat shaky as he breathed out, "Hey, mom." If he hadn't been so sad and happy and relieved all at once, he would've been embarrassed at the way his voice cracked on the word 'mom,' but his thought were too occupied with other things, namely how amazing it felt to have her show concern for him.

She pulled back and her hands found his cheeks, gently cupping his face as she looked him over with the utmost worry in her gaze, "You're not still in pain, are you?"

He shook his head, blinking away his tears as he gave her a watery smile, "I'm okay."

"That's my boy! Enduring the pain with a smile on his face!"

An arm was suddenly slung around his shoulder and he slightly curled into himself under its weight, his gaze slowly sliding to the owner of the arm, who stood on his left. Vibrant red hair greeted his gaze, along with a sharp, tanned jawline that donned an X shaped scar at its center.

His eyes went wide again. Never had he heard Igneel speak so jovially, nor had he seen his father smile so brightly.

He felt the man's chest rumbled as he let out a deep chuckle, tightening his grip on his son and pulling him into something akin to a head lock as he used his other hand to ruffle his salmon hair.

"Dear, be careful!" Grandeeny halfheartedly scolded her husband, her hands immediately going to his forearm and trying to free her son.

Wendy just giggled as she watched her parents fuss over her older brother, happy to note that she'd been right to assure him of their care for him.

For Natsu, time seemed to slow as he watched his sister laugh, his eyes sliding to their mother as she fretted for his freedom, the warmth of his father's arm still curled around his shoulders.

Upon waking up in the modern world and seeing the bright whiteness of the hospital room around him, he'd thought he was in the afterlife. Of course now, he knew that such wasn't the cast, but for a moment, he wasn't sure that he was really alive again, because he felt that this truly was heaven.

The universe really had given him an irreplaceable gift in the form of another chance at life, and a bright smile spread across his face as he thought over how blessed he was that this was his family, and with them, he could spend the rest of this life.

* * *

 **AN**

 **Gaaahhhh it's been too long. I'm sorry, but also kind of not just because of how insanely busy I've been. If you can afford to, don't work and go to college at the same time, kids. It's not fun...but t** **he semester's over in a month, and then I have all of December off of school so it'll officially be writing time! Of course my other fic Save Me takes priority since I've dedicated myself to a consistent update schedule, but we're actually already about half way down with that one, so I'll be finding some time to work on this one too, I promise!**

 **Good news though, I think I've finally decided where I want to go with this story in terms of giving it a climax (It won't be anything too dramatic though, I promise). I did want this story to have some substance after all, instead of it just being a Nalu fluff fest, although there will undoubtedly be an ungodly amount of Nalu fluff in this thing still. I just wanted it to feel more like an actual story where the characters still grow and develop rather than everything being solved so pleasantly. There will be one more main hardship that they'll face (along with smaller ones as they continue their work to accept the past). We'll still get to see all of the Nalu and other ships, but we've got an actual cohesive story-line now. I've even been hinting their kinda final struggle in chapters already ;)**

 **But hey, at least we got Erza and Jellal now! And Grandeeny and Igneel are finally home too!**

 **Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and thanks so much for reading! It's been over a year since I started Scarlet Heart, and to know that people still love that story enough to care about this sequel makes me so happy! Your support is what keeps me writing, even though it may take me a bit! I'll try my hardest to make sure that there isn't as big of a delay before the next chapter!**

 **Thanks again!**


	5. Chapter 5: Life is Like a Roller Coaster

**MERRY CHRISTMAS!**

* * *

Natsu plopped himself on his bed with a heavy sigh, throwing his arm over his face so that the crook of his elbow rested over his eyes.

It'd been a little over two weeks since his parents had returned home, and the past fifteen days had been rather daunting, to say the least. He thoroughly enjoyed spending time with his family, but it seemed like nearly every moment with them was occupied by them telling him stories about who he used to be as if they were trying to jog his memory. The salmon haired boy dutifully clung onto every word, but in the end, he always went to bed with muddled thoughts and downtrodden feelings.

He wasn't the boy they'd known as their son and brother, and keeping up the act, trying to fill that hole in their life and keep them from finding out that the Natsu they'd known and loved was no more so that they didn't have to feel the heartbreak was incredibly taxing. The fact that he had the guise of losing his memory somewhat aided his cause, but while he was amongst his family, he couldn't help but wonder whether or not he should be doing what he was in the first place. They deserved to know the truth, but he really didn't want to be the one to dump that heavy load upon them, feeling like he'd already caused enough misfortune to others in his past life. And, if he ever did end up telling them, how would they react to finding out who he really was? He was practically a stranger, so he figured that they'd surely kick him out at the very least. They'd probably never want to see him again, and then he'd lose nearly all of the second chances he thought he'd been gifted with. And then really, what would be the point of him living this new life he'd been given?

All of those concerns were what made him appreciate the common moments where he was home all alone like he was now, with Wendy gone to school and his parents working their respective jobs. He couldn't really understand what his dad did for a living, only that he somehow brawled with fires, but, to his surprise, his mom was a doctor, just like the other female physicians he'd awed over when he'd first woken up in this time.

He peeked under the arm he had thrown over his eyes as he scrolled through his recent contacts, taking advantage of his solitude to call upon the one second chance he knew he'd never lose. She was the one chance he'd never let go of, the one he refused to give up on, because he loved her too much to lose her a second time.

" _Hey!"_ Her greeting was light chipper, her voice as pleasant and melodic as ever.

"Hey, Luce," he hummed, a smile automatically worming its way across his lips as he said her name. He hadn't seen her since that day they'd gone out for a walk around town, the blonde's work schedule seemingly conflicting with every moment he had away from his family. When they were home, he couldn't dismiss himself from their time together since he hadn't told Wendy or his parents about the blonde yet. Although Erza might've had no negative reaction upon meeting Lucy, he was sure that his family would undoubtedly be suspicious of her since to them, it would seem like she popped up out of nowhere. He couldn't even use the excuse of having dated her in secret since he'd supposedly lost his memories, and their relationship would surely reflect badly on the blonde since it would seem like she'd taken advantage of him and made the whole thing up. The last thing he wanted was for his family to hate Lucy, so he'd resolved to wait to tell them until he felt like the time was right.

" _So, what's up?"_ she questioned lightly, trying to start the conversation quickly so that they could as much talking in as possible before her break was over. She'd given Natsu's decision to keep their relationship secret for the time being her wholehearted support even though it meant that they were limited on when they could meet, figuring that since they had the rest of this life to spend together, they could stand an indiscernible, but hopefully short span of time away from one another. She didn't want to rush Natsu into doing anything he wasn't comfortable with, and since their situation was a rather peculiar one, she figured that it was best to take things slow.

Natsu got her drift of wanting to get to the point, so he hurried and stated it flat out, knowing that their time was limited, "Erza invited me to go an amusement park, whatever that is, and she said you could come, too, if you wanted."

" _Oooo, I hadn't even thought of taking you there! The vibe of an amusement park suits your personality perfectly_ ," the blonde giggled. She'd been compiling a list of places to see and things to do with her boyfriend, wanting to show him all of the perks and spectacles of her time now that she had the chance to. Going to an amusement park wasn't something she'd thought of since she didn't go to one often herself, but she always enjoyed her time there when she did, so she'd have to thank Erza for the invitation, _"When are we going?"_

"We're meeting up on Friday at seven thirty. I guess Erza wanted all of us to get together so you could meet the rest of our friends, and that's the only time everyone could do it."

When the blonde spoke next, her voice was a little less enthusiastic, but still light, " _Oh…so it's not just a double date…Do you know who else is going to be there_?"

"Of course Jellal's coming, and some girl named Cana…" his voice faded out before he could list the final member of their party, not knowing how the blonde would react. But he swallowed heavily to muster up the gusto to say it, knowing that she would be finding out sooner or later anyways, and things would probably work out more smoothly if he told her sooner, "and…and Gray." His third youngest brother had probably been the prince that the blonde was closest to apart from him, though, after the whole marriage thing, he was still somewhat in the dark about what her relationship with Loke had been like. Regardless, Lucy had been incredibly close to the Gray of the Ishgar Dynasty, close enough to call him her best friend on numerous occasions, and that was a sure sign that she wouldn't take meeting the Gray of this time lightly, just like he hadn't. The pinkette hadn't been able to hold back his tears, and Lucy probably wouldn't be able to either, which would surely be quite the sight since to the others, it would seem like this was her first time meeting the raven haired boy. Natsu hoped that this warning would be enough of an incentive for her to prepare for the moment so that she didn't make a fool out of herself.

There was silence on the other side of the line for a few moments before the blonde quietly breathed out, " _Gray? Really?_ "

He hummed in affirmation, ready to try and make the situation easy on her by doing everything he could.

Silence briefly met his ears once more as she continued to process the information, the first of many questions slipping from her tongue once she'd come to terms with it, " _Have…have you met him yet_?"

"I…yeah," Natsu let out heavily, finally removing his arm from over his eyes so he could scratch Happy's head when the feline jumped up onto the bed and nuzzled into his side, near his hip. "I only talked him for, like, five minutes though."

" _What was he like?"_ the blonde asked hopefully, Natsu knowing that she wanted him to say the raven haired boy was the same one she'd known back during the Ishgar Dynasty.

How cruel it was that such wasn't the case.

Natsu thought about his brief encounter with the Gray of this time in the entryway of his home, recalling his ruggedness and obvious lack of the playfulness he'd been known for a thousand years ago, "He's… _different._ I mean, I guess he seemed pretty okay and nice, but he's just…different. I'm not sure how else to describe him."

" _Oh…okay,_ " Lucy mumbled softly, her voice a mixture of worry and uncertainty.

He could hear traces of disappointment in her voice too, though he couldn't tell whether it was because he was unable to tell her more about Gray or because the Gray of this time wasn't like the boy she'd known. Either way, he'd taken upon himself the job of taking care of her and looking out for her, so he quietly started, "I'm sure it'll all be okay though, Luce. We were all friends once, so I'm sure we can all be friends again in this life, too. I know all of these people we're meeting now aren't the same people they were a thousand years ago, but the more time I spend with my parents, the more I'm starting to think that maybe all of these…'reincarnations,' or whatever else you want to call them…it seems like they're at least some version of the people we knew and loved. They have the same quirks and mannerisms, but the different time period and environment they grew up made them into different people. They all grew up without having to worry about the succession of throne or the politics of ruling an empire, so they became whoever they wanted to be instead of being forced to adhere to the roles they were born into. And the fact that they're all here, together in this time with us, can't just be coincidence either. Fate must've put us all together again for some reason, right? So I'm sure it'll all work out."

" _Okay,_ " she hummed softly, her gentle smile practically audible through the phone. " _See you Friday, then_?" Just like she wasn't going to waste the new life she'd been given with Natu, she was going to make the most out of the second chances she'd been given with all of her friends. And maybe she could salvage and recover the friendships that had been cruelly torn away from her, regardless of whether or not they were with the same people. Because, like Natsu had said, even if they didn't have their memories of the past, at their core, they were still themselves, which meant they were still her friends in her eyes, and she wouldn't let them go, no matter what.

* * *

Natsu still wasn't quite sure what an amusement park entailed, but as he stood just inside its entrance beside Gray, Erza, Jellal, and Cana, all the bright colors and flashing lights around him sure had him excited. He could hear the faint sounds of screams too, some excited and some terrified, but the laughter and other sounds of enjoyment, accompanied by the music, outweighed the sounds of fear.

There was another emotion that accompanied his excitement as it rushed through his veins, and that was downright confusion. He hadn't been able to stop staring at Cana with a near scrutinizing gaze ever since he'd first met her, and his eyes were still on her now as she chatted with the other three while they waited for Lucy to show. There was just something about the brunette that screamed familiarity, something that made him think she must resemble someone he'd known in his past life. That was the only explanation for why he'd immediately felt like he'd been acquainted with her for some time, but right when he was about to put his finger on exactly why he felt the way he did, the thought slipped his mind, preventing him from settling on a solid conclusion.

With a small humph of frustration, he finally tore his gaze away, both because he didn't want the brunette to notice his staring and because someone was approaching them that he deemed much more worthy of his attention.

He couldn't stop the grin that broke out across his features as he waved to Lucy to catch her attention, the blonde stepping through the front gate of the park after her hand had been stamped and shyly coming over to meet them with her hands clasped around the strap that crossed over her chest to rest on one of her shoulders and allowed the purse to hang at her opposite hip. He'd long since decided that while she would always look beautiful to him, the modern day clothes of Fiore suit her better than the clothing of the Ishgar Dynasty, her frame adorning a red and white striped, loose-fitting t-shirt that matched the red of her sneakers and a pair of denim shorts. The way her long, pale legs seemed to stretch on forever after the fabric of her shorts ended had him mentally thanking God for the invention of short-shorts.

He swore he wasn't a pervert, but he also gave himself out by repeatedly justifying his own actions in his mind, claiming that since the blonde was his girlfriend, he could stare at her and admire her all he wanted. Of course, he would stop immediately if she ever asked, but while she'd admitted that she knew he'd been ogling her, she hadn't said that she didn't like it, so he figured he was perfectly fine to keep admiring her looks all he wanted.

"Hey Luce!" he greeted her with a light peck on the lips as he intertwined his fingers with her own, their hands comfortably clasping together like they had many times before.

Erza offered the girl a soft smile, "It's good to see you again, Lucy."

"Yeah, it's good to see you, too," the blonde beamed at the redhead and Jellal for a moment before her gaze shifted to the two she had yet to be introduced to, though she already knew full well who one of them was. Her bright smile never faded as she held out her hand to the closer of the pair, giving the brunette a warm greeting, "It's nice to meet you. I'm Lucy."

"Cana," the girl introduced.

She gripped her hand with more strength and enthusiasm than Lucy had been anticipating, and the blonde knew that she'd misjudged the brunette right off the bat. Cana wasn't as dainty and delicate as her looks made her seem, and Lucy could tell that she could easily hold her own and wasn't one to be trifled with.

The brunette quirked a sly brow as she looked between the blonde and the salmon haired boy she was holding hands with, a smug chuckle slipping through her lips, "Wow, Natsu, I never thought you'd be into the blonde bombshell type."

Lucy's cheeks flared as the brunette's gaze settled on her chest.

"So, what's your favorite part? Is it her sweet face, or her big boobs, or-"

"That's enough, Cana," the raven haired boy next to the brunette irritably huffed out with his arms folded over his chest, finally breaking his silence. After he'd finished rolling his eyes he looked to the newly introduced girl, the corner of his lips quirking in a small attempt at a smile as he held out his hand, "Don't mind her, she's just a pervert. I'm Gray."

"Lucy," she let out a breath of relief as she shook his hand, quietly noting that once again, Gray was easing her discomfort, though he might've just done it to be nice this time instead of out of concern like he normally was. He obviously wasn't the playful Gray she'd once called her best friend, and while his resemblance to the boy she'd known hurt, she figured he had his own way of showing kindness despite how gruff he seemed. "Nice to meet you."

"Well then, now that everyone's been introduced," Erza huffed out, a grin quirking the edges of her lips as she looked around at their group in anticipation, "Let's ride some rides, shall we?"

* * *

"Luce…I'm not so sure about this."

The blonde giggled at the look of horror on Natsu's features as the chest restraint was lowered over his head, his hands automatically clenching around the handles at the front of the restraint, his knuckles turning white. His wide eyes never left the track of the roller coaster their cart would soon rush over, specifically the point in the distance where it shot straight up into the sky before plummeting back down at an angle that was equally as steep.

"You'll be fine, Natsu. It might be kind of scary at first, but once you get used to it, you'll enjoy the thrill," she halfheartedly reassured, unknowledgeable of the hell he faced every time he rode in a car. He'd been too embarrassed to tell her about his motion sickness, not wanting that to tarnish the image of the badass warrior-prince he used to be.

That image was about to be slaughtered though, his stomach lurching as something beneath their cart began to let out something he could only describe as a hiss.

As their cart slowly began to move forward, clicking filling the air around them as it slowly climbed to the top of the first hump, Lucy could only giggle as her boyfriend began to hurriedly babble in panic.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no…I don't like this, Luce. Lucy, I'm serious. Get me off."

The blonde ignored him since there was nothing she could do now that the ride had started, lifting her hands above her head and letting loose a thrilled shriek as the cart rounded the crest, all mechanical force pushing the cart disappearing as momentum and gravity took control, their cart zooming down the flipside of the steep hump.

Natsu's protests only grew more frantic, his voice reaching levels of desperation that she'd never heard from him before as he screamed, "Get me off! Stop the ride, Luce! Stop the ride!"

* * *

Lucy kept a close eye on Natsu as their gondola of the Ferris wheel started to lift from ground-level, keeping a tight grip on his hand as his eyes focused on anything but her in nervousness. He'd gone completely silent about half way through their ride on the roller coaster, and for a moment, she thought he'd passed out. But when she'd glanced over at him, she found him with his cheeks puffed out and an unusually pale face, his lips sealed tightly together as he fought to stop himself from throwing up.

After their adventure on the roller coaster, it'd taken quite a bit of convincing on her part to get him to board another ride, but she figured that of all of the rides at the park, the Ferris wheel was the least daunting, and that if he couldn't stomach that, he wouldn't be able to stomach anything. The only thing that was even somewhat scary about the ride was the hundred and fifty foot distance from the very top to the ground, but if the former prince's tendency to eat lunch on the edge of cliffs was anything to go by, he didn't have any problem with heights.

A small smile wormed across the blonde's lips when about halfway up to the top, her boyfriend finally seemed to relax, her fingers still comfortably interlaced with his as she softly started, "See…this isn't that bad, is it?"

"No…" he mumbled, finally glancing her way briefly before his eyes went back to scanning the sights beneath and around them, their vantage point giving them a spectacular view of both the amusement park and the lights of the town in the starlit night. "It's…actually kind of nice."

The blonde rested her head on his shoulder as she hummed, "That's good. I'm glad we finally found something about the modern world that you like."

"Well, that's just a bunch of baloney," he chuckled.

Lucy quirked a brow as she shifted so that her chin rested on his shoulder instead of the side of her head, giving him a curious stare and wondering where he'd picked up such a phrase in the mere three weeks he'd been in this time period.

He turned to look at her too, placing a light kiss on the tip of her nose, "I like _you_ a lot, and _you_ belong to the modern world."

She let out a tiny sigh, "Yeah…but sometimes I don't feel like I do."

It was his turn to quirk a brow, "What do you mean?"

"It's just…" the blonde turned so that her head was resting against his shoulder once more, "I guess from anyone else's perspective, I've been living here, in this time, my entire life. But mentally, all of the memories I've made since I woke up from my coma are getting jumbled with the nearly nine years of memories I recovered from the Ishgar Dynasty. It's kind of hard to remember who I really am when I changed so much over those nine years in Ishgar, and then when I woke up here, I was back to being the Lucy I was before I drowned. And when I died, I was nearing my thirties, but now I'm twenty-four once more, and I have to live that part of my life all over again."

She ran the tips of the fingers of her free hand over the knuckles of the hand she had grasped tightly in hers, her voice still heavy as she finished, "I'm eternally grateful that we get this second chance, but living again...it's just a bit…confusing. Towards the end there, after I'd given birth to Nashi, I'd come to terms with the fact that I was going to die. But now here I am, alive and sitting beside you. It took me a long time to accept everything that happened, but now, a thousand years later, it's as if all of that had no purpose...Like everything we did doesn't matter anymore." Her hand shifted in his as she quietly, tentatively asked, "You…you feel the same way, don't you? You lived out your _entire_ life, but now here you are, forced to go through life again and fated to die once more."

Natsu was silent as he thought over all that she'd said, his perspective shifting once more as he viewed this second chance at life through a different, less optimistic lens, and not for the first time. He'd first seen this new life as an irreplaceable blessing, and while he still planned to share much of it with Lucy in happiness, after what she'd just said and with all of his concerns about revealing his identity and the devastation that revelation would bring to his friends and family, he was starting to wake up from that dream of this new life being filled with nothing but bliss. He had already lived out his entire life, and those years he'd reigned had taught him that there would never be life without heartache and loss, and by living again, he was subjecting himself to all of that once again.

The blonde must've misinterpreted his silence for anger or grief, pushing herself away from his shoulder to hurriedly apologize, "I…I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up. We're supposed to be happy now, so-"

"But you're right, Luce," he gently cut her off, his brows furrowed. "And I…I guess spending time with my family has kind of me feel like I don't deserve this new life."

She inhaled sharply, rushing to make amends, "Natsu, that's not what I meant."

"I know, Luce," he gave her a halfhearted, bitter grin, "But I…I kinda feel like I'm taking advantage of the other Natsu's death, and living the life he deserved to live. I already had my shot at life, but he had his taken away."

"It wasn't like you chose this, Natsu," she muttered, her own voice heavy with the weight the weight of his previous words. "You didn't ask for this to happen to you. Neither of us asked for any of this. The lives we're living now were forced upon us just as much as the ones we lived in Ishgar were." She swallowed heavily, lightly clearing her throat at the pained expression on his features.

She'd decided that it was just much her job to comfort him as it was his to comfort her, so she softly continued, "It's our choice to decide what we make of the lives we were given though. If you live miserably…you would be wasting the life the other Natsu gave up for you. You should try to honor him instead. We both know better than anyone that we're not going to be at bliss all the time while we're living in this world, but…that doesn't mean we can't try to be. We might not be able to handle everything that comes our way, but…we can always try to be happy. And like I said before," she gave him a soft smile as she shifted the usage of her own words, "we've already lived life. That means we know that no matter what heartache we face, we can make it through," she tightened her grip on his hand, "especially since we'll be by each other's sides every step of the way."

Natsu solemnly looked down at their intertwined fingers. He didn't know if those thoughts of his own unworthiness of the second chance he'd been given would ever go away, but the blonde had gifted him with words of comfort that would stick his mind just as persistently.

Life was hard and full of up and downs, but that was just the truth of the matter. It was still wholly worth living, especially when spent with loved ones, the people that were treasured more than anyone else.

He squeezed her hand back just as tightly, giving her a warm grin to let her know that she'd gotten her message across, loud and clear, "I love you, Luce."

He expected her to say it right back like she always did, but instead she kept her features firm as she urged, "Promise me that you'll never talk like that again."

She hadn't phrased it like a question, which meant that there was no argument.

"I promise."

Her features finally broke from their resolved state, softening as she sweetly pressed her lips to his, the pair parting just as they finally reached the peak of the Ferris wheel and she gently breathed, "I love you, too."

* * *

 **AN**

 **Gaah I know it's been way too long since I last updated, but I fought really hard to get this chapter ready for Christmas (I was writing for seven hours yesterday), so, first of all, MERRY CHRISTMAS, and second of all, I hope you enjoyed the mesh of angst and fluff in this chapter. Like always, I was planning on it being wholly fluff, but then the angst-lover in me found its way to the surface and this happened…**

 **Anyways, I just brought A Tale of Twenty-five Decembers to an end (which I'll suggest for any of you who want some Nalu Christmasy goodness), and I'm posting the last chapter of the other fic I'm working on, Save Me, on Friday, so I'll have some free time coming up. I would like to say that I'll be focusing on this one more, but I'm super psyched about my next fic, so I'm not sure…but I mean…I'll try. It's just that inspiration for this is hard to come by, and sometimes it comes and goes before I can fully flesh out an idea and get a chapter written. But I'll try, I swear. When I started posting stories on fanfiction, I pledged to never leave one unfished, so even if it takes us a bit, I swear I'll finish this one.**

 **Thanks for reading and Happiest of Holidays to you all!**


	6. Chapter 6: Ice

Screams of joy filled the air, coalescing with the hum of muffled music beneath the excited chatter that filled the amusement park. Lights of all different colors flashed along the edges of rides and the tops of booths, setting the area aglow with a sense of childish fun in the warm spring night.

In the middle of all the noise and the myriad of colors, sat Natsu, watching Lucy wade through the crowd towards the bench he'd claimed.

Somehow, the two of them had wound up on their own. Natsu wasn't feeling particularly inclined to go any more rides, his stomach having had enough dips, turns, and flips for the day after his first round on the park's largest roller coaster. Lucy was content to pass on the rides as well since it meant she got to spend some time with her boyfriend, and she was more than happy to use the time they had alone to introduce him to more of the perks of the modern world.

Trying all of the new food that made its way into the world since his past live had definitely become one of his primary interests, and Lucy was happy to oblige, giddy that he found joy in the most basic of things. So she'd gone to a nearby booth to get him one of her favorite desserts, one she'd missed dearly during her time in the Ishgar Dynasty, especially during those hot summer days she'd spent as a court lady and water maid, when she'd wanted nothing more than to strip herself of the many layers of her hanbok and dive into the lake which had become her and Natsu's most common meeting place.

She came to a stop right in front of him, her knees bumping against his as she passed the treat into his hand, "I have to go to the bathroom." She leaned down to gently press her lips to his for a brief moment, pulling back with a warm grin, "I'll be right back, 'kay?"

He hummed to acknowledge her little promise, already fascinated by the dessert she'd placed in his hand.

The blonde gave Gray a little wave in passing as he emerged from the crowd and made his way towards the bench as she was walking away, the raven haired boy offering her only the tiniest quirk of his lips in return.

In the brief moment between Lucy leaving and Gray joining him on the bench, Natsu found himself in one of those rare moments, though they were becoming increasingly common since he'd wound up in the modern world, where he was content with just sitting alone and taking it all in. He used to hate stillness and being alone, but being in the modern world, with all its new wonders and attractions, had made him want to stop and appreciate the world more, especially since he had the time to do so now that he didn't have to worry about the duties that came along with being a prince and a king.

To him, excitement had always meant fighting and swordplay, and although it was marginally less dangerous, this aura of thrill seeking simply for the sake of having fun felt somewhat the same. Although he couldn't stomach the amusement park's particular brand of thrills, he was still attracted to the idea behind it all, that there was a certain adrenaline rush that came from taking risks.

He'd long since decided that amusement parks weren't for him, but his time here had made him wonder what other thrills the modern world had to offer.

One thing he would gladly stomach more of, on the other hand, was the cold treat Lucy had given to him before she'd disappeared back into the crowd.

He was so invested in devouring the foreign food that he didn't notice the look Gray was giving him as the raven haired boy plopped onto the bench beside him, all of the manners that'd been drilled into him as a prince and king flying through the window as he spoke around the treat, "Man, this stuff is amazing…What's it called again?"

Gray continued to stare at him in shock with furrowed brows for a moment before he blankly explained, "Its…its ice cream. And you've never liked it."

Natsu froze, his eyes slowly swiveling to look at the flabbergasted raven haired boy. His tongue slowly retreated back into his mouth and he lowered the cone so that his arm rested atop his leg, panic settling in as he thought that maybe he should try to come up with a reason as to why he seemingly suddenly liked this 'iced cream,' or whatever Gray had called it.

But Gray beat him to the chase, lowly clearing his throat before hesitantly starting, "So, uh…When did you and Lucy start dating?"

Unease crawled through Natsu's veins. He really would've preferred coming up with an excuse as to why he suddenly liked ice cream instead of answering that question. But he'd known that someone was bound to ask at some point down the line, which had given him a bit of time to contemplate the answer he would give.

He'd settled on telling the truth in a roundabout way, clearing his throat and shrugging, "I've known her for a really long time, and I ran into her in the hospital after we got in that accident. We just kind of…reconnected, I guess."

Gray wasn't having any it, his voice still sharp as he asked, "If you've known her for a long time, how come I've never even heard of her?"

Natsu's lips pressed into a grim line.

One thing he'd learned over the past few hours with his 'friends' was that he and Gray were known for their fighting and jabbing, and although he'd never really been one to banter, he was fine with obliging in this case if it got Gray off his back. He hoped to make his act believable by channeling all of the annoyance his little brother had made him feel in his past life as he grumbled, "Maybe I just thought she was too good to be tarnished by meeting a loser like you."

He expected a harsh jab in return, or at least a sharp whack on the shoulder or head, but all he got from the raven haired boy was a hard stare, his voice low, "Look, I know we've never been the type of pals that tell each other every little secret, but…You lose your memory and then three weeks week later, some chick I've never heard of shows up claiming to be your girlfriend. Of course I'm suspicious."

Natsu was beginning to think that the only similarity this Gray shared with his younger brother from his past life was his appearance, because he didn't think he'd ever heard the Gray of the Ishgar Dynasty speak so coldly about someone else. Granted, he really hadn't spent that much time around his younger brother, but he knew him well enough to know that his hate had always been childish and somewhat unfounded.

It was almost like what had happened to Gray at the end of his previous life had hardened him in this one, like Laxus' betrayal had made him less willing to give out trust in this time period. Natsu could tell that this Gray had to have been through some things, obviously nothing like being hunted down and murdered by his own brother, but surely whatever events had occurred proved that the modern world wasn't all wonder and fluff.

He shoved that thought aside for later investigation, setting himself up properly instead of slouching and turning to look his former little brother straight on.

A moment ago, he'd been unsure of himself when it came to shooting jabs, but defending Lucy was definitely one thing he could get behind with a passion like none other, "Lucy's not 'claiming' to be anything. She loves me and I love her. That's all there is to it."

Silence claimed them again for a few moments while Gray continued to fix him with his hard stare, but the tension took a plummet when Gray let out a heavy sigh, his gaze turning to the side, "Whatever you say, ashface. Just know that if she hurts you in the future, I'll be there to say 'I told you so.'"

Natsu didn't get a chance to put up any further defense, the raven haired boy pushing himself from the bench and disappearing back into the crowd without another word, probably to find the rest of their friends. Natsu almost chased after him, but then the melting ice cream that dripped onto his hand reminded him that he'd promised Lucy he'd stay right where he was until she returned.

For a moment, he wondered if there was a Juvia in this time period. He hadn't heard a word about her or anyone who could possibly be her, but if a version of Gray, Erza, Jellal, and his parents were here, there was no saying that there couldn't be a modern-day Juvia. And if she was here, then maybe she was just what this Gray needed to soften up and become more like the Gray of the past, the happier and more carefree version of himself.

* * *

Once Lucy had returned, Natsu waited a moment to bring up what had happened with Gray. He wanted to handle things more gingerly this time around, especially after the hefty conversation they'd just had on the Ferris wheel.

Lovingly keeping his eyes on the blonde next to him all the while, he waited until there was a lull in their pleasant chatter to quietly begin, "Gray asked me about you. He seems a bit suspicious."

Despite his fears, the blonde didn't seem all that caught off guard by the news, but she did still seem a bit upset by it, her shoulders lifting in a half-hearted shrug as she smiled bitterly, "It's understandable, I suppose. I mean, to him, it probably seems like I came out of nowhere."

Her little grin faded, her eyes dropping to her lap for a moment, "What you said in the Ferris wheel…It got me thinking…" She turned to face him fully, firmly connecting her gaze with his, "I think we should tell him the truth. About who you really are."

"What?!" Natsu blurted.

"Maybe not right now, but…down the line. I think Wendy deserves to know, too. And your parents." When she looked up to find that he was still staring at her like she was insane, she regained some of her gusto, "Come on, Natsu. I don't think it's fair to keep the fact that you're from the tenth century a secret."

The former king scoffed, halfheartedly jabbing, "Well you didn't tell me that you're from the future."

Lucy rolled her eyes, "That's because I was afraid of being put to death if I let it slip. I was sure that I'd be executed for saying something so absurd. But, things are different now…" She reached across to grab the hand that rested in his lap, intertwining her fingers with his reassuringly as she gave him a gentle smile, "And besides, unlike me, you're not the only one who knows the truth. I'll be there to back you up. I'm not asking you to tell the whole world, but…at the very least, I think Wendy deserves to know that her brother…her _real_ older brother is dead. And Igneel and Grandeeny deserve the same."

She was right, Natsu realized with a heavy heart. His previous life had been full of deceit, and he didn't want any more of it, especially if he could prevent it.

He swallowed heavily, his fearful voice barely audible over the chatter and noise of the amusement park, "What if…what if they _hate_ me? What if they kick me out? What do I do then?"

"If worse comes to worse, you know I'll always be here for you," Lucy responded back without missing a beat. "But we'll wait until we feel like the time is right. If we come clean now, I think it would only make more of a mess." At his persistent look of uncertainty, she squeezed his hand tighter, "I don't want to spoil this second chance we've been given, but that also means that I don't want us to make the same mistakes we did in the past. I don't want there to be any reason for us to feel regret, and if we keep this secret, I know we'll regret it down the line."

He nodded in agreement, sitting silently for a moment more before he hesitantly asked, "So…what do we do until then?"

She shrugged lightly, settling back into the bench at his side, "We can take some time for ourselves. Organize our thoughts and figure out how to go about really getting your life in this time started." He could practically hear the smile in her voice as she hummed, "First things first: I'm going to teach you how to read."

* * *

Natsu cleared his throat as he took a seat at the counter, his task in helping his mother prepare dinner having been completed. Now, all that they had left to do was wait for the meal to cook, so he took his chance while he had it, his eyes following his mother's hand as she ran a wet rag across the counter top, "I think I'm ready to start living on my own again."

Grandeeny's eyebrows furrowed, her eyes immediately filling with motherly concern, but trust was there, also, "Are you sure?"

"It's been three weeks since the accident, mom." Natsu smiled warmly, "Staying here with you guys has been great, but…If I'm really going to get back on my feet, I think I need to start taking bigger steps. I think I'm ready to try being on my own again."

She shifted her weight, her hands settling on the edge of the counter, "What about work? Do you think you're ready to go back?"

Natsu froze up for a moment as the topic he'd been deadly curious about ever since he'd learned from Lucy that everyone nowadays had a job, a daily task that they did to earn pay. He was afraid of hearing that his job required knowledge he didn't have anymore, that it had something to do with an aspect of the modern world that he was unfamiliar with. If it had anything to do with technology, he knew he'd be screwed, and anything that required reading was definitely going to be impossible now, too, at least until Lucy helped him learn the modern alphabet.

But at the same time, he was eager to learn more about what the other Natsu's interests had been, and maybe discover that there was an overlap in their skillsets.

He took his time phrasing the question, tentatively asked, "Um…what exactly is my job?"

Grandeeny got that look in her eyes again, the remorseful one that appeared every time she was reminded that her son had lost his memories and he asked a question about himself that seemed impossible for him not to know the answer to.

But, like always, she obliged his curiosity with patience and a small grin, "You're a swordplay instructor at the Magnolia School of Arms."

Natsu felt like his heart might stop beating, whether out of relief or shock he didn't know. The fact that his job wasn't only something he loved, but that it was the thing he was the best at sounded far too good to be true, his voice hesitant like she might respond by saying it'd just been a joke as he breathed, "Really?"

Grandeeny gave him a hum of affirmation, a reminiscent smile on her face as she happily filled in the blanks, "Erza got you into swordplay during middle school. You really connected with your seventh grade history teacher, Mr. Clive, and from his class onwards you were fascinated by the dynasties of the past. Erza kind of took advantage of that to get you into one of her own interests, but I don't think any of us ever thought you'd love it as much as you did."

She smiled warmly as she slid into the barstool next to him, "I think the idea of adventure appealed to you like nothing ever had before. You wanted to learn how to ride horseback and the ancient art of wielding a blade so that you could live like the heroes of the past." She let out a light laugh as she recalled a particularly fond memory, "So, if you can imagine, when Mr. Dreyar announced that he was opening up the nation's first historically accurate school of defense, and right in our hometown, you went a bit bonkers. I don't think I've ever seen you more excited."

The nostalgic lilt in her voice faded as she turned to find him still staring blankly forward, misinterpreting his expression of utter shock as one of uncertainty. She placed a light hand on his arm, "If you don't feel ready to go back, I'm sure Mr. Dreyar would understand. He's been very understanding of the situation so far, and I'm sure he wouldn't mind it if you took a few more weeks to recover. I know it's not the easiest job to jump back into, especially when you're working with blades."

He numbly shook his head, slowly coming back to reality from how his mind had been reeling, "No. That's alright. This whole things is just…" his face broke out in a massive grin, "…it's incredible. I can't wait to get back."

* * *

 **AN**

 **It's short, but at least its something. Motivation for this fic is rare for me nowadays.** **I started writing this more for you guys than for myself,** **so any motivation you can give me is greatly appreciated.**

 **Thanks for reading**


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